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THE BATTLE IN THE SWAMP. 







FROM MONKEY TO MAN 

OR 

Society in the Tertiary Age 

^ A Story of the Missing Link 


SHOWING THE FIRST STEPS IN INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, GOVERN 
MENT, REEIGION AND THE ARTS 


WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT EXPEDITION FROM COCOA* 
NUT HIEE AND THE WARS IN AEEIGATOR SWAMP 

^ s’* 1 

d > 

^ » ft « 

» s 

AUSTIN BIERBOWER 

Author of “The Virtues and Their Reasons,” “The Socialism of Christ, 

“The Morals of Christ,” Etc. 


\ 

BY 


Illustrated by H. R, HEATON. 


CHICAGO 

INGERSOLL, BEACON CO 

1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Cooies Received 

JUL 2 ^906 

Copyright Entry . 



,uss !*“• 

COPY B. 


COPTKIGHT 1906 
BY 

WM. H. MAPLE 
CHICAGO 




M. A. DONOHUE; COtVlPANY 
PRINTERS AND BINDERS 
407-429 DEARBORN STREET 

CHICAGO 


PUBLISHER’S PREFACE. 


The extraordinary interest which this book has excited has 
induced the publisher to issue a new and revised edition 
at a reduced price, believing that, as it is the first attempt 
at a prehistoric novel, it will have a wide reading. The sub- 
ject, the characters and the period are here for the first time 
introduced into fiction. 

The scenes are laid in the Tertiary Age when, according to 
the Darwinian Theory, men were emerging from the Ape, and 
they portray the supposed exploits of our ancestors at that 
stage of development. The author has aimed to exhibit the 
features of the time — climate, foliage, animals, etc. — as under- 
stood by Geologists and Biologists, and to be scientifically 
accurate, with no more variations in proportion than are usual 
in historic fiction. 

If Evolution is the true theory of man’s origin there is a 
long period of forgotten history, covering thousands of centu- 
ries, during which men lived and fought and learned, and this 
book seeks to revivify it and make it realizable. In this period 
nearly all the arts and industries were started, and the author 
suggests their crude origin in a variety of episodes. The 
origin of arms, building, religion and government, the first 
use of fire and clothing and the primitive form of many social 
and business problems are indicated in the course of a simple 
story. 

In addition to its valuable scientific hints, the work is rich 
in practical wisdom. It is also spiced throughout with a vein 
of quiet humor which provokes mirth and makes it highly 
entertaining as well as instructive. 

The illustrations by H. R. Heaton, an artist of national 
reputation, are believed to be the best work of his genius. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGK 

Frontispikck 

Sose^k’s Mother Kncountkrs thk Snake; - 10 

Shamboo’s Ride 20 

The Robbers of the Ammi - - - - 31 

“See Beloved How the Mighty Fall at the 
Word of Simlee and the Stroke of Shoozoo” 36 
“ I Have Brought One of the Ammi Instead ” 51 

Koree and Sosee Encounter a Monster - 58 

The Rescue of Orlee; ----- 69 

The Battle in the Swamp - - - - 80 

Tae Catastrophe - - - - - 97 

The Fight with the Fire-Monster » 102 

The Greedy Oko - - - - - 120 

Pounder’s Mishap 129 

The Battle Begins - - - - - 139 

Koree’ s Challenge ----- 149 

The Retreat of the Tali - - - - 161 

Sosee Warns the Ammi - - - - 172 

The Wood-Bating Animal in the Camp of the 

Ammi - - 191 

The Ammi Breaking Through the Ice - 198 

Sosee’ s Strategy - - - - , - - 212 

Return of the Ammi to Cocoanut Hill - 225 


6 



— 6^ ^ ^ 

it V /A r. ;.-v 

' /' 








CHAPTER I. 

BOUT ninety years after the 
fight between the Monkeys 
and Snakes on Cocoanut 
Hill, which was five hundred 
thousand years before our 
era, and near the end of the 
Tertiary Age^ Sosee was sit- 
ting on a limb sucking a 
mango, when Koree came up 
in great consternation. 

“The fat baboon, from 
across the swamp, ’ ’ he said, ‘ ‘ has carried off Orlee while 
her mother was hunting berries in the bushes. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ If you love me, Koree, ’ ’ replied Sosee, uttering a 
wild scream, “ you will fetch her back, and bring me the 
tail of the baboon before night.” 

Sosee, who spoke these words, was a comely girl of 
twelve years, one of the new race which had recently 
separated from the Apes, and would no longer recognize 
them as equals. There was a hostility between the Apes 
and these upstarts, and frequent incursions were made 
from the territory of one on that of the other. 

The Apes had mostly retreated to the swamps and for- 
ests beyond, while the new race were occupying the 

7 



8 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


region about Cocoanut Hill, which their ancestors of two 
generations before had taken, after many conflicts, from 
the Apes, and from which they had driven the savage 
beasts. Here the parents of Sosee were living, and here 
Sosee had grown to womanhood. 

The Cocoanut Hill region was a large tract, in what is 
now Southern France, stretching from Alligator Swamp 
toward the mountains in the distance. This section was 
plentifully covered with fruit trees — mangos, palms, figs 
and limes ; the under brush furnished berries and suc- 
culent herbs ; the waters of the swamp, which bordered 
this land, abounded in fish, frogs, turtles, snakes and 
alligators ; while great flocks of ducks, geese and other 
water fowl frequented it at seasons. The forests abounded 
in Uri, Wooly Oxen, Musk-Deer and other game. This 
abundance of vegetable and animal life supplied food for 
the Ammi, as the new race was called, and they would 
have lived in comfort but for the attacks of the Apes 
beyond the water, who, keeping an envious eye on these 
fruits, often came over the Swamp for food. 

Shortly before the event of which we speak, some apes 
in one of these predatory incursions, were met by a 
larger number of the Ammi, when several of the former 
were killed, and one, a small boy, taken prisoner. The 
Ammi, expecting the Apes to attempt reprisals for this, 
kept a watch at night, while during the day they 
guarded their children. 

Several times on the day mentioned signs of approach- 
ing Apes had been seen. Gimbo, the grandfather of 
Sosee, who still persisted in walking on four feet». 


PROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


9 


(although the Ammi generally had begun to walk up- 
right), said he could scent the trail of the Apes, and had 
noticed the marks of one walking on four feet. But 
Gimbo was deemed a garrulous old man, somewhat unre- 
liable, who claimed exceptional wisdom about the ani- 
mals lower than men, so that little attention was given 
to his warning. 

The mother of Orlee, however, had observed a sudden 
starting up of geese from the swamp; but this also raised 
little suspicion, as they might have been startled by a 
fox. Tater, however, her keen sense of hearing detected 
successive splashings in the water, as if made by plung- 
ing alligators or turtles on the approach of an enemy. 
She was, accordingly, slow to leave the spot where her 
child was playing — a girl of three years, the sister of 
Sosee. 

Gaining confidence, however, with the restored silence 
of the swamp, she took a club with which she usually 
warded off reptiles when hunting berries, or killed them 
when requiring them for food ; and, armed in this way, 
she waded into the swamp, still keeping, however, in 
sight of her child. 

As the berries were plentiful, she had soon eaten all 
she wanted, making thereof her morning meal, when 
she was attracted by some luscious ones farther in the 
swamp, which she hurried to get for the child. Having 
filled her hands she was next startled by a huge snake 
of the Boa species, which swung suddenly down from a 
tree, like a great vine and sought to fasten its coils 
around her. 





FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 11 

Dropping the berries and uttering a wild scream, she 
seized the serpent, and, sinking her nails, and teeth in its 
flesh, began a fatal struggle with it. The snake, which 
had fastened one coil about her leg, swung round vio- 
lently with the intention of encircling her waist. Her 
screams startled the child, which began crying, and the 
two noises attracted the attention of Koree, the lover of 
Sosee, who was sporting in a puddle near by. 

Koree started to the rescue of the woman, but, in the 
tangled underbrush could not find her; but, instead, he 
ran against a gigantic ape, which had also been startled 
by the cries, and, in his fright, was running about in 
confusion. This ape gave Koree a powerful blow with 
his fist, and then ran out of the swamp to where the 
child was playing. Seizing the child he next ran with it 
into the bushes and was out of sight. 

Too weak, or too frightened, to follow, Koree now' 
hurried back to give the alarm, when he encountered 
Sosee on the tree, as we have related. Sosee’s screams 
and calls to Koree to rescue the child roused some men 
near by, who now all rushed for the swamp. 

As they approached they saw the mother of the child 
emerging from the bushes carrying the huge snake in 
- triumph about her neck, part of which was hanging 
down in long folds, pending from her arms. Never was 
a woman prouder over a necklace of diamonds or pearls. 
Her bloody face and arms added to the terror inspired hy 
her Amazonian air, as, with a proud step, she advanced 
to the men and threw down her trophy. 


12 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Disburdened of her load, and sinking from the stimu- 
lant of battle, she now became faint, through loss of 
blood, and was about to drop to the ground ; for, in the 
struggle with the serpent, she had been severely bitten 
and wrenched, so that her own blood was mingled with 
that of the reptile on her body. 

As she was about to faint away, however, she observed 
that her child was gone, when all the excitement 
returned which had attended her in battle, and, on hear- 
ing of its capture, she sent up a wail which echoed 
through the forest, and flew into a rage that terrified the 
. bystanders. 


CHAPTER II. 


events related in the pre- 
ceding chapter occurred, as 
we have said, about ninety 
years after the fight between 
the Monkeys and Snakes on 
Cocoanut Hill. As the time 
of the Ammi is reckoned 
from this fight, we shall go 
back, for awhile, to the 
affairs which immediately 
preceded it. 

The Apes of all kinds had, till then, been roving 
promiscuously over the country along with wild beasts of 
every description. The forests being free to all, and 
likewise the swamps, there was a scene like that of the 
jungles of Central Africa to-day. Tand and water 
teemed with life, and were animated with struggles 
for the food of the region. Gigantic lions, tigers, 
woolly rhinoceroses, mastodons, cave-bears and other 
savage beasts sported in their favorite element. Serpents 
were particularly abundant, especially in the great Alli- 
gator Swamp, from which they emerged to the high 
country to catch rabbits and other game. The Apes, 
which were mostly vegetarians, did not at first interfere 



14 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


with the more savage beasts hunting in these forests ; so 
that there was an endless variety of animals in the region 
of which we speak. 

The Apes at this time lived mostly on trees, especially 
at night. This was necessary on account of the more 
savage beasts which roamed over the ground. When 
game became scarce the tigers and some other animals 
attacked the Apes, and often killed them. The weaker 
animals which could not climb the trees were generally 
in danger of becoming the prey of the stronger ones. 

This arboreal life became in time irksome to the Apes, 
many of whom had made some progress in methods of 
living and hunting. These were, accordingly, anxious 
to acquire a right to the ground, and security in its pos- 
session. They had become so large that a fall from a 
tree was a serious matter. Nor was a tree always con- 
venient to climb when they were in danger. 

They could not, however, come to the ground while so 
many savage beasts occupied it. A sleeping ape was 
liable to suffer ^eath if met by a tiger, especially in 
recent years when many fights occurred between the 
two. The Apes, accordingly, conceived the project of 
ridding the country of the more dangerous animals. 

There were two principal species of Apes at this time, 
the Ammi, who afterwards became known as men, and 
the Tali, who were the enemies of the Ammi on the other 
side of the swamp; and, though there had come to be 
marked differences between the two, (of which we shall 
presently 'speak,) they were, at this time, both living 
together as Apes (the Man- Apes of Biology), and were 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


15 


alike interested in ridding the country of the stronger 
beasts. 

A council was, accordingly, called to take measures 
for their common welfare. In this council they gave 
their respective views without those formalities which 
now attend such gatherings. They spoke mainly in 
gestures and growls, which constituted all there was of 
language then, (articulate speech not having been devel- 
oped beyond a few broken sounds). One, Shamboo, 
believed to be the great-grandfather of Sosee, was the 
acknowledged leader of the Apes, and he directed the 
deliberations of this assembly. Speaking in the manner 
indicated, this Ape harangued the multitude to the fol- 
lowing effect : 

“Tailed Apes, upright Apes, Baboons and Monkeys of 
low degree : I am tired living on trees. I am getting too 
old and fat to climb, and cannot go up in the air every 
time I want to sleep. My eyes are bad, and can’t tell a 
rotten limb from a sound one. Only two days ago, 
while eating a cocoanut, the limb broke on which I was 
sitting, and I fell to the ground, striking a porcupine; 
and there has been a sick monkey ever since. Just 
before the big rain I was chased up a tree by a hyena, 
when, before I got out of reach, he seized my tail, 
already reduced to a stump, and I had to let go of either 
the tree or my tail. I stuck to the tree, but to-day I am 
a tailless Ape 1 Why should the ground be conceded to 
tigers and snakes 't The earth was made for monkeys. 
Our food is mostly on the ground, and it is easier to walk 
on a level than up and down. We can run faster than 


16 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


we can climb. We cannot fly, like the birds, and there 
is no easy way for such big folks to get up a tree. But 
we dare not come to the ground. If we do we must 
fight some brute. The tigers want the earth ; and we 
can’t afford to maintain perpetual war. I am, therefore, 
for peace, and so favor killing off our enemies. If the 
forces of the trees will but combine, dropping their dis- 
putes about the milk that is in the cocoanut, they can 
conquer the forces of the earth. Resolve, then, monk- 
eys all, to make a fight for the land, and not be so often 
found up a stump. True to your apehood, join me in 
oath to drive out the ground-beasts. Everything in 
this valley will then be ours. We shall have the plants 
and berries, and frogs, and little fishes. We can then 
lie down to sleep without falling off, and run about with- 
out getting tired. Whoever loves monkeykind will, 
therefore, follow my advice. Now, all of you who are 
resolved to drive out the beasts which claim this land, 
swear with me by scratching your top rib while I crack 
this butternut and eat the kernel.” 

The eloquence of Shamboo gained the assembly to his 
proposition. Every rib got a scratch, and the solemnity 
of the hour was felt in every breast. An aged priest of 
the Mountain Apes bowed low his head, breathing a 
blessing on the undertaking; and from that hour the 
savage beasts of Cocoanut Hill were doomed. 


CHAPTER III. 



pI~Z3 HB plan of attack on the beasts 
was two-fold. tDne method 


was to associate together and 
make a combined assault by 


two’s or more, according to 


Ejli!j|j the strength of their antagon- 
|pfj ists. The other was to get on 
• trees and spring upon the ene- 
my when asleep or at other 
disadvantage. In this way 


they hoped to so worry the 


larger beasts that they would quit the region of their own 
accord. 

This cooperation was important as being the beginning 
of association among Apes. By uniting in two’s and 
three’s for attack or defense they learned to confederate, 
and so laid the foundations of society. Till that time 
they had roamed the forests and jungles solitary, each 
one hunting alone his food, like the tigers, and forming 
no lasting or frequent attachments. They met the oppo- 
site sex casually at a spring or in the fruit regions. They 
did not recognize their own children, or care for them 
except for a few years after birth, until they could roam 


17 


18 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


for themselves. Only occasionally did they meet for a 
common purpose, and then only for a little while. They 
were not gregarious, though they sometimes met in large 
numbers where food was abundant, and became slightly 
acquainted. They chattered or fought while together, 
and then parted to see one another perhaps no more. 

Having now, however, formed a Teague of the Apes, 
offensive and defensive, these animals, who disputed 
with the tigers the right to be called the lords of the land, 
soon became acquainted with one another, and therefore 
learned to like each other better. They found that they 
had many common interests, and there sprang up warm 
attachments between them. Their mutual disagreements 
disappeared before their disagreements with the tigers. 
They learned to help one another that they might destroy 
a common enemy, founding their unity on their common 
hatred. Many sentiments were, accordingly, developed, 
to which, ape-hood had before been a stranger. Hearts 
were touched where before there were thought to be only 
stomachs, and a new sentiment — love — was awakened in 
the race ; and when they parted after a night’s watch, oi 
fight, they often presented one another with a cocoanut 
or bull-frog. Unselfishness gradually took the place of 
unrestrained competition, and a monkey etiquette grew up 
and became recognized. Some of the apes became notice- 
ably polite, especially to the opposite sex, and there was 
soon quite a little social intercourse between them. They 
would go out by two’s and three’s for food or water, as 
well as for a fight, and thus they learned to labor together, 
as well as fight together. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


19 


Nor was this all. Having got together in a league, it 
was not easy to separate them. They came together to 
stay, and they stayed to co-operate in many measures 
besides their own defense. After their wars certain in- 
dustries sprang up, among which was the damming of 
part of the Swamp (where it was entered by a stream), 
so as to form a lake, in which they could with more 
convenience drink and wash. Having tasted the sweets 
of association, they wished, in short, to remain in society; 
and when subsequently the younger ones became restive, 
and tried to regain the liberty of independent or single 
life, the older heads compelled them to adhere to the 
social compact. 

Scarcely had they formed their alliance for war, when 
they set out for the enemy. Their chief foe was the 
tigers and snakes, because these were most numerous, 
although there were some lions, pachyderms, bears, and 
other savage beasts, of which also they meant to rid the 
country. One proposed that they all start out to- 
gether, saying that while they would thus be fighting as 
a whole, the enemy, which would be fighting singly^ 
could be easily overcome. Shamboo opposed this plan, 
however, as likely to attract too much attention, and, 
perhaps, to cause the tigers also to confederate. “ Tet 
us,” he said, “indeed, fight each enemy singly; but it 
does not require more than three apes to kill one tiger.” 

They accordingly broke up into small bands, and 
started on a tiger hunt. On the first day of the War of 
the Beasts, a body of three, led by Shamboo, climbed a 
Yew tree near the Swamp, where a great tiger was 


20 


. FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


known to come to slake his thirst. It was agreed, of 
rather laid down by Shamboo as the method of attack, 
that when the tiger should pass under the tree, one of 
them, the youngest and strongest, should drop upon the 
tiger’s back, and fasten his jaws in his neck, when the 
rest would follow and dispatch their victim. 



SHAMBOO’S RIDE. 


Scarcely had this been resolved upon, when the tiger 
appeared, marching slowly toward their tree. He was 
carrying a sheep in his mouth, and his great show of 
muscular strength and fierce expression seemed to despise 
danger. The ape who had been chosen to drop on the 
tiger drew back in fear, and told Shamboo to do that 
part himself. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


21 


No time was to be lost, and, before the words of the 
timid ape were fully uttered, Shamboo dropped upon the 
tiger. His great weight crushed the beast to the ground, 
and compelled it to let go of the sheep. The tiger 
immediately got up, however, and, not knowing what to 
do, in his embarrassment, started on a full run. Sham- 
boo clung to his back, and away they both went, like 
John Gilpin, dashing over hill and dale and through jun- 
gle and forest. The deer fled at their approach, squir- 
rels ran up the trees, a flock of ducks started from a pool 
near by, and the flight of birds and beasts from their 
path was like the stampede which precedes a prairie fire. 
Shamboo’s teeth were fixed in the tiger’s neck,. and his 
feet like spurs were sunk in his sides. 

So they ran, and the earth rapidly receded behind 
them. The other two apes followed, but at a distance, 
so that the tiger and Shamboo were practically alone, 
and. must soon, it seemed, try their strength in single 
combat. The tiger, however, was too scared to take an 
inventory of what he was carrying, while Shamboo’s 
thoughts were divided equally between how to hold on 
and how to let go. The tiger himself soon solved this 
problem for Shamboo by running through a hole in a 
thicket which was too small to admit both, so that Sham- 
boo was knocked off. He fell into a cluster of bushes, » 
and the fall was so violent as to cause him to turn sev- 
eral summersets, so that he did not know in which 
direction he had been going. The tiger, lightened of 
his load, but not of his scare, kept on, and was soon out 
of sight and out of this story. 


22 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


Shamboo picked himself up and, looking round, spied 
the other two apes coming slowly toward him. He 
limped back to them with an air of disappointment, 
rather than of suffering, and, without uttering a word, 
fell upon the younger ape, who had shown cowardice, 
and killed him for his breach of military discipline in 
disobeying orders. 

The fame of that ride and that fight remains to the 
time of this story, though there are different versions of 
it among the Ammi and the Apes beyond the Swamp. 

And long subsequent to this time, when the descend- 
ants of these Apes got to riding on the backs of horses 
and cattle, there was a legend ascribing the origin of the 
uses of beasts of burden to this unwilling ride of Sham- 
boo; and in the mythology of the later Apes Shamboo 
became the god of Domestication. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE course of the contest 
with the tigers, which lasted 
several years, many improve- 
ments were made in the art 
of warfare, which afterwards 
served the Apes in time of 
peace. After the experience 
of Shamboo and others, who 
attacked unarmed the savage 
beasts, they found it advisable 
to fight at a distance. Taking 
their position on trees, which was done for safety, the 
problem was how to reach the enemy. They commonly 
showered cocoanuts and other large fruits upon them, 
which, while annoying to small animals, had little effect 
on tigers. They next carried stones up the trees for 
missiles, which they dropped with some effect. In time 
they became expert at throwing, and could strike a 
tiger’s head ten paces off. Shozoo claimed to have 
killed a hyena at a distance of many alligators’ lengths 
with a rock larger than his head ; but Shoozoo had a 
reputation for lying, which was greatly developed during 
the war. 



23 


24 


I^ROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


The Apes also broke off branches of trees, with which 
they pounded the savage beasts, not only by throwing 
them from the trees as missiles, but by using them as 
clubs, until they became skilled in the art of pounding, 
as well as of making clubs. When catamounts, bears 
and other climbing beasts attacked them on the trees, 
and fought paw to paw with them, they used the stones 
as knives, and often cut their assailants fatally, having 
learned to select sharp stones for this purpose, and, in 
time, to sharpen them specially. Before the war they 
had used stones only to crack nuts. But now they 
learned both to use them for many other purposes, and 
to make them into the size and shape which best suited 
them. 

The first manufactures of the Apes were thus of mili- 
tary implements, their necessity being the mother of 
invention. In time of peace, however, they found new 
uses for these implements, like their descendents who 
afterwards beat their swords into plowshares and their 
spears into pruning-hooks. The missiles with which 
they had attacked the tigers they soon used for hunting, 
and in time for building. When they came down from 
the trees, and lived more on the earth, they knocked 
cocoanuts down, instead of climbing after them; they 
killed birds and rabbits by throwing stones at them, 
instead of lying in wait for them, and they speared fish 
with their clubs which they had learned to sharpen. 
They could thus act at a greater distance, and so had 
more power, both to defend themselves from wild beasts, 
and to obtain food. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 25 

Shoozoo, the liar just mentioned, told some wonderful 
stories of a stone which he sharpened and the exploits 
he performed with it. He saw a lion, he said, sleeping 
at the foot of a tree, when, throwing the stone, he cut 
the tree from its stump, which, falling on the lion, killed 
him ; and he would have brought the dead lion to verify 
the story, but it was so big that all the monkeys of 
Cocoanut Hill could not have carried it away ; but he 
showed the sharpened stone as evidence. 

He related also that when hunting owls at night, after 
killing all that were in the forest, and having nothing 
more to throw at, he threw his stone at the moon, and 
hit it with such force that he cut off a piece ; and, as evi- 
dence of this, he pointed to the moon, which was, indeed, 
seen to have a large piece gone, so that many Apes 
believed him for once, though they knew he was habit- 
ually a liar. For the evidence of their senses was gener- 
ally deemed enough for the Apes. Shamboo, however, 
doubted the story and asked Shoozoo why he did not 
bring home the other piece of the moon. “When I cut 
it off,” he replied, “it fell into the Swamp and was swal- 
lowed by an alligator. I expect to catch that alligator, 
and then I will show you the rest of the moon.” 

The Apes of Cocoanut Hill, liowever, who placed lit- 
tle confidence in Shoozoo’ s stories, placed less in his 
promises; although the next generation, which accepted 
him as the founder of their religion, believed him to be 
a better man, and accepted his stories as history and his 
promises as prophecy; so that what was incredible to 
contemporaries became indisputable to posterity; and the 


26 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


traditions that gathered about his name were sufiScient to 
silence the doubts in a generation later which they had 
raised in a generation before. In course of time the big- 
ger stories only gained credence, the rest being forgotten; 
so that what was received with most distrust was handed 
down with most confidence; and the farther they got 
from the time of their performance the easier it was 
thought to be to get at the truth about them. 

For many generations every alligator that was killed 
was opened in order to find the moon ; and, though it was 
often claimed to be found, there was never as much con- 
fidence in the story of its recovery as of its loss ; for the 
Apes early learned to distinguish between religious sto- 
ries, and only accepted those for which there was ade- 
quate evidence. The uninterrupted testimony^ of the 
fathers, which had come down in regular succession, and 
had never been doubted, was deemed the best evidence. 
Apes have accordingly differed about the incidentals of 
the story; for many accounts have come down about the 
details, which are not to be reconciled; but as to the 
great essentials — that the holy Shoozoo actually did 
knock off a piece of the moon, and that an alligator 
swallowed it — there is a substantial agreement ; and as 
often as the moon, in generations later, appeared in cres- 
cent form, the festival of the Holy Crescent was cele- 
brated by throwing sharpened stones in the air in honor 
of the great exploit of their Founder, Shoozoo. 

But, though Shoozoo, who passed in one generation 
for a liar, and in the next for a God, left a questionable 
heritage to the Apes, they still retained out of his age 


FROM MONKS Y TO MAN. 


27 


something of substantial value. The use of implements 
was invented, and the arts of making and using them 
were handed down to Monkeys and Men. 


CHAPTER V. 



FTKR the savage beasts had 
been driven from the region 
of Cocoanut Hill, and the 
Apes had come dpwn from 
the trees, and were habitually 
on the ground, they found 
themselves encountering new 
? dangers. The snakes were 
troublesome. The snakes 
had, indeed, been trouble- 


some before, but it was mainly when they climbed the 
trees for birds’ nests or fruits. The Apes did not then 
encounter them so often, and amid the greater dangers 
from the four-footed beasts, did not find it necessary to 
make war against them. But now, when the Apes 
walked more on the ground, they met the snakes oftener, 
and under more disagreeable circumstances. The snakes, 
morever, had greatly multiplied since the destruction of 
the savage beasts, many of which devoured, or fought 
with, snakes, or else lived on the same food. With the 
departure, accordingly, of the enemies of the serpents, 
and their increase of sustenance, the serpents became 
powerful, and at last threatened to drive the Apes from 
the region. It became dangerous to walk abroad, espec- 


28 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


29 


(ally near the Swamp. At night they disturbed the 
slumbers of the Apes. Shoozoo declared that he once 
found two in his ear when he awoke, and that he had 
swallowed some big ones during the night, although 
Shamboo declared contemptously that he only had worms. 

Many precautions were, from time to time, taken 
against the snakes. Some of the Apes persisted in still 
sleeping in the trees. Most of them, however, sought 
holes in the ground and caves in the rocks, which they 
fortified by piling brush and earth at the entrance; while 
others, not finding holes conveniently at hand, dug thefii 
and covered them with brush, so as to form a mound. 
The race had thus begun to build, and one of the first 
arts — architecture — was founded. The home originated 
in a fight against the serpent. 

The snakes, however, soon attacked these homes, and 
all the more eagerly because of the food stored in them. 
For the Apes found that they couM put their structures 
to many uses not before known. They would hold their 
provisions, as well as themselves, and would protect such 
provisions from the weather, as well as from the snakes, 
and so preserve them for a longer time. Their homes 
accordingly became store-houses, and this facility for 
keeping provisions by storage stimulated the collection 
of them. Instead of gathering only what they wanted 
to eat at the time, the Apes now picked up all they could 
find, and placed it in their dug-outs. They soon learned 
to allow nothing to go to waste, and became economical. 
They even collected when they did not want anything, 
from the mere fact that they could store it, and thus 


30 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


became provident. They believed they might want in 
the future, and so often stored large quantities; for some 
Apes early became avaricious. They got in time to be 
as proud of their possessions as of their homes, and 
often gathered from a feeling of ambition. Shoozoo 
claimed that he had enough fruits in his mound to feed 
all the Apes of Cocoanut Hill for a lifetime; which 
nobody of that generation believed, and nobody of the 
next donbted. 

These great quantities of fruits, we say, attracted the 
snakes, who were soon found more plentiful about the 
homes than about the swamps. Wealth always has its 
enemies, and a snake no more than a man, will work for 
what he can get more easily. It was thought easier to 
get cocoanuts in Shoozoo ’s dug-out than by climbing a 
tree. 

One day an ape, who had made a large collection, 
found, on returning home, that all his store was gone. 
The snakes had broken in and eaten what they could, and 
destroyed the rest by half eating it. The only sign of 
the thieves was an old snake which had eaten so much 
that he could not get away, and lay, like a drunken 
man, helpless on the ground. The ape soon dispatched 
him; but that did not satisfy the ape. He was indig- 
nant, and in his sense of suffering wrong we have the 
first appearance of the ethical sentiment. The sense of 
wrong in others appears before we recognize it in our- 
selves. The snakes did not feel the wrong; nor did the 
same monkey when afterwards he went to steal some of 
Shoozoo ’s fruit (and found none), although he felt an 



31 


THE ROBBERS OF THE AMMI 






32 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


indignation at Shoozoo that might be called an incipient 
sense of the wrong of falsehood. He wanted to charge 
Shoozoo with lying; but as that would have disclosed 
his own theft, or attempt at it, he suppressed his indig- 
nation in his prudence. 

Other depredations were committed by the snakes, so 
that almost every ape soon had a property grievance. 
Added to this was a growing personal animosity between 
the Apes and the Snakes. As they had frequent con- 
tests over the fruits, they had learned to fight, and so to 
hate, each other, and finally to look upon each other as 
public enemies. 

Nor was all the fault with the snakes. For as soon as 
the Apes got to accumulating, they scoured the swamps 
as well as the hills for provisions, and so met the Snakes 
in their own element, who had to fight for the ungath- 
ered fruits as well as the gathered. In fact, through 
their strongly developed acquisitiveness, the Apes had 
drained the country so generally of its productions, that 
there was not enough left to support the Snakes, so that 
the latter had to become criminals and attack the gath- 
ered stores. Whenever the rich gather up everything 
so close as to leave nothing for the poor, the latter will 
turn criminals, whether they be snakes or men, and will 
steal from the 'rich, whether these be men or monkeys. 

There, accordingly, sprang up an antagonism between 
the Snakes and the Monkeys, which had all the bitterness 
of class feeling, as well as of race prejudice, and soon an 
irrepressible conflict was impending. The Monkeys 
demanded the extirpation of the Snakes as violently as 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


83 


they had, in the preceding campaign, demanded that of 
the tigers; and from one end of the highlands to the 
other was heard the cry, “The snakes must go.” 

“ Steppers and crawlers,” said Shamboo, “ cannot live 
in the same country. If there is anything a monkey 
hates it is to tramp on a snake. Only to-day one bit me 
in the heel, and to-morrow I shall crush his head. 
Enmity is declared between our race and theirs. A 
snake in the grass can never be loved by our seed; and 
so, until there shall be no more Snakes, or else no more 
Monkeys, the conflict must go on. We came down from 
the trees to the ground only to find others who had got 
still closer to the ground, and were climbing the land as 
we had climbed the trees; and it is a question whether 
belly or feet shall walk the earth. When the Apes got 
down off the trees they got up on their feet; and we do 
not mean to again walk through life on four feet to look 
for snakes. ’ ’ 


CHAPTER VI. 


^ jHE fight with the snakes, which 
now began, was not remarkable 
except for the stories to which 
it gave rise. The reptiles were 
nearly all driven from the 
country before it was over, al- 
though many of them took ref- 
uge in the Swamp. But many 
tales of prowess were related of 
that war, which made it famous 
in after times, and caused it to 
be the event from which subsequent time was reckoned. 
Shoozoo claimed to have killed more snakes and bigger 
snakes than any of the rest, and, as none could boast 
much of their actual exploits, which were small compared 
with those claimed by Shoozoo, they all took to lying, 
and thus started the habit of making snake stories, which 
has come down to their descendants. These accounts 
were so great that the next generation, which was the 
first to believe them, ascribed marvelous powers to the 
heroes of this war, and so made it the commencement of 
an epoch, as well as preserved the stories, with additions, 
for their future theology. 



34 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


35 


“Why do you not,” asked Simlee, a young gorilla for 
whom Shoozoo had formed an attachment, ‘ ‘ bring home 
one of those big snakes of which you kill so many, and 
proudly lay it at my feet ? “ 

“Is it not enough,” retorted Shoozoo, “that I bring 
home the story of it? The honor that comes from 
vsnakes is not in having them, but in killing them.” 

“But I want the proof of both your exploits and your 
love,” replied she; “the other baboons bring something 
to their loved ones, and the girls are all taunting me 
with your failures and your neglect. I am pining for 
snakes.” 

Shoozoo felt embarrassed, but, being always ready 
with a promise when he lacked an achievement, said: 

‘ ‘ I will bring you the great dragon of the swamp, the 
winged alligator that rules these waters and darkens the 
sun when he flies.” 

“I would rather have plain snakes,” she said; “I 
would entwine them in my hair, and, like the girls of Jo 
and Kibboo, drape them as trophies about my neck.” 

“Never doubt my love,” he replied, “Yqu shall be 
ensnaked; aud my conquests and your adornments will 
be the pride of all monkey dom.” 

Simlee, thus reassured, ran laughing up a tree, while 
Shoozoo departed to achieve, or invent, fame. 

Arming himself with a club and a vivid imagination 
he went out, like Don Quixote, for snakes and glory. 

He had not gone far when he encountered an enormous 
snake, the first real one he had found since the war, not- 
withstanding his stories, and one which would, indeed. 


36 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


have delighted Simlee and given Shoozoo fame as its 
slayer, had he brought it home. But, instead of Shoo- 
zoo making for the snake, the snake made for Shoozoo. 
Back he turned excitedly, and there was a long race 
between the snake and the monkey, the monkey keeping 



“SEE, BEEOVED, HOW THE MIGHTY FATE AT THE WORD OF 
SIMEEE and the STROKE OF SHOOZOO.” 


ahead and gaining; and long after the snake ceased to 
follow Shoozoo continued to run. At last, however, 
Shoozoo panting and almost out of breath, climbed a 
tree, and looked about to take in the situation. And, 
though he did not .see the snake, he nevertheless would 
not come down, but remained in the tree till night, when 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


37 


he sneaked home by a route different from that by which 
he came. 

On nearing the place where he had left Simlee in the 
morning, and wondering what account he should give of 
his day’s adventure, he found another huge snake lying 
in his path. He started back in fright; but, assuring 
himself that it was dead, he approached with courage. 
“This,” he said, “is my opportunity; it will both sat- 
isfy Simlee and astonish the rest.” And so, shouldering 
the snake he bore it proudly back to Simlee, and laid it 
at her feet with these words: 

“See, beloved, how the mighty fall at the word of 
Simlee and the stroke of Shoozoo!” 

Simlee leaped from the tree with glee, and taking up 
the snake, called to the other girls who were sitting 
among the branches or lying about the mounds, to wit- 
ness her good fortune. 

“That’s the same snake,” replied one, “that was 
brought here two days ago by Kibboo, and thrown away 
this morning because it had begun to smell. ’ ’ 

At this Simlee grew angry, and flew at the girl with 
open jaws, tearing her hair and beating her face; and 
there would have been as hot a fight between the women 
as between the men and the snakes, but for the return of 
the warriors with their trophies, when the curiosity of 
the female apes, which was greater than their anger, put an 
end to the quarrel, and they all ran to possess themselves 
of the snakes for ornaments. 


CHAPTER VII. 


B have said that the stories 
of the exploits of this war 
have been handed down in 
the religion of the Apes. 
This is due not so much to 
the achievements of the he- 
roes as to the accounts of 
them by Shoozoo, who was 
much more active in relating 
battles than in fighting 
them ; so that, as the heroes of the Trojan War owe 
more to Homer than to their own prowess, (for many 
great men lived before Agamemnon, whose exploits are 
forgotten for want of an imaginative historian); so the 
heroes of the fight about Cocoanut Hill are chiefly in- 
debted to the Homer of the Apes for his reports of 
them. As gods, demi-gods, heroes and fair women rose 
from a ten days’ skirmish on the banks of the 3caman- 
der, so divinities, good and bad, had their origin in the 
Cocoanut Hill battles by reason of a good telling. Shoo- 
zoo was, fortunately, unlike Homer, both warrion and 
historian, and so, like Xenophon and Caesar, made him- 
self the chief character in his accounts. The other apes 
nearly all drop out of history, and their deeds are 
' 38 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


39 


ascribed to him, who at the time of this story, was 
deemed the chief character in that conflict ; showing that 
for future fame a good liar is better than a good fighter. 

Thus the driving out of the snakes from Cocoanut Hill 
came in time to be wholly attributed to Shoozoo, so that, 
like St. Patrick, he was honored for the entire service of 
their expulsion. The great dragon, or flying alligator, 
of which he only spoke to Simlee as an excuse, was, in 
time, believed to have been actually killed by him, as a 
primitive St. George. The snake that had entered the 
mound of one of the apes, and gorged himself with its 
treasured fruits, and which was killed by the ape, was 
alleged to have been slain by Shoozoo while guarding 
great treasures in a cave, as Siegfried slew the Nibel- 
ungen dragon. The expulsion of the snakes from 
Cocoanut Hill found its way into various stories about a 
primitive pair of apes — Shoozoo and Simlee — whose 
fruit was stolen by snakes, for which the snakes w^ere 
driven from the country; reversing the story of Adam 
and Kve, who took the fruit from the snake and were 
themselves expelled, instead of the snake. Had Adam 
been his own biographer, like Shoozoo, the story of 
Kden might have been reversed. 

The long contest and great enmity engendered 
between the Monkeys and the Snakes, also caused in 
time the serpent to be taken to represent everything bad, 
and this conflict came in the Apian Mythology to be 
represented as the conflict between good and evil, in 
which a great serpent fought with Shoozoo and was over- 
come by him, but not altogether slain; so that, as in the 


40 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


Persian Theology, the contest between good and evil 
still went on, although Shoozoo was expected to come 
again iii the great future, and put the serpent entirely 
under his feet. 

Also, as the serpent came to represent evil, it was 
believed that the great winged alligator, with which 
Shoozoo fought, was the King of Evil, or Devil, and, 
that, being the chief of serpents, he led all assaults 
against the interests of the Apes. He was pictured with 
wings, tail, and great claws, and was supposed to be the 
power that ruled over Alligator Swamp, or the Eand of 
the Bad. Apes frightened their children by saying that 
the great flying Alligator would come up out of the 
Swamp and devour them. Simian demonology thus had 
its birth. Dike Juno springing from the head of Jove, it 
issued full grown out of the imagination of Shoozoo, 
with an alligator for its only foundation in fact. 

It will thus be seen that the fight between the Mon- 
keys and Snakes on Co'coanut Hill, which was important 
in the history, became more important in the mythology 
of the Apes, and, from its prominence in their profane 
and sacred traditions, it is natural that the Apes should 
make it the commencement of an epoch. 


CHAPTER VIII. 





FTER the Snakes had been 
driven from the region of Co- 
coanut Hill, and the land thus 
rid of both wild beasts and 
reptiles, the Apes, who had 
now undisputed possession, 
got to fighting among them- 
selves for the land. Those, 
therefore, who had united for 
defense now divided for con- 
quest. 

There were two principal varities of Apes, as we have 
said, — the Ammi from whom the Men are descended, 
and the Tali, who, while resembling the former, were 
inferior in manners, and more closely resembled the 
present Orang-outang. They had both sprung from the 
same original stock, and, until several generations before, 
lived together in a more southerly country. At length 
they separated, (while still in the south), the Ammi go- 
ing eastward, and the Tali westward, like the separation 
between Abraham and Tot. 

Being thus separated, and so removed from mutual 
influence, they soon diverged in customs. The Ammi, 
under more favorable circumstances, began to walk erect, 

41 


42 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


to live more on the ground, to find many uses for their 
hands, and to make some progress in speech. The Lali, 
who had wandered into a less hospitable country, made 
no progress whatever, but rather degenerated ; so that 
when, generations later, the two varieties met again on 
Cocoanut Hill, there were marked differences between 
them. 

They had both come to the Cocoanut Hill country in a 
great migration of monkeys from the South, the Ammi 
coming from the southeast and the Tali from the south- 
west. This migration was caused by the failure of fruits 
in the south on account of some cataclysm in Nature of 
which we have no reliable accounts; and monkeys of 
every kind came north, so that there were soon all the 
varieties of which we have spoken in the Cocoanut Hill 
region. And this failure of fruits, we may add, was a 
principal cause of the providence of the Monkeys in 
laying up stores; for they were anxious that a second 
famine should not occur like that in the land from which 
they had come. 

These apes, having therefore met again, met with dif- 
ferences such as did not separate them in the south 
country; and, though they imitated one another to some 
extent (the Tali picking up some of the sounds of the 
Ammi, and so acquiring by degrees the habit of speak- 
ing, and also walking at times up-right and using their 
hands), there were, nevertheless, irremovable differences 
between the two; and, though they made common cause 
as long as they had to fight tigers and snakes, they again 
asserted their differences with the return of peace, and 
so found it impossible to assimilate. 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


43 


In view of this incongeniality the Ammi in time were 
found associating wholly among themselves, and the I<ali 
likewise among themselves. Jealousies and suspicions 
arose between the two, and frequently fights. Class dis- 
tinctions gave rise to class controversies, and finally to 
class wars. The Tali were soon hated as much as the 
snakes by the Ammi, who conceived the project of driv- 
ing them from the country; and the Tali, in turn, 
resolved also to get the country for themselves. 

After several conflicts, in which now one party and 
then the other was successful, and after several tempo- 
rary compromises, in which they tried to live together, 
the Tali, partly vanquished and partly persuaded, con- 
sented to withdraw to the lands beyond the Swamp, 
leaving the Ammi in possession of the Cocoanut Hill 
region. 

The separation, however, was no settlement. The 
Tali claimed the land which they did not take, and 
hoped to get in the future what they were willing to sur- 
render for the present. The two parties stood, like Ger- 
many and France over Alsace and Torraine, growling 
much, but doing little. . Occasionally they made incur- 
sions into each other’s territory, and carried away some 
fruit or provisions; but, though they talked chiefly of 
war, they lived mainly in peace. Separated by snakes 
and swamps, they were kept at peace by the difiiculty of 
coming together. The danger of crossing, and the delay 
in going around the Swamp, were too great for war. 

This was the condition and situation of the two forces 
which occupied the world as known to our ancestors at 
the time of this story. 


44 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


Having made this digression on the antiquities of the 
Apes and a bit of their history, in which we have seen 
the origin of their religion, government and industries, 
and of many of their customs, we shall now return to 
the scenes beginning this story, which are nearly a 
century later. 


CHAPTER IX. 


OSEE had come down from the 
tree in which she received the 
news of the rape of Orlee, 
described in Chapter I, and, 
though she had given orders 
to Koree to bring back the 
child, she did not herself 
remain inactive. She rushed 
into the crowd, and, calling 
upon all, with wild screams, 
to rescue the child, went her- 
self into the Swamp, and without any notion of where 
she was going, wandered about aimlessly till night, being 
completely lost. She found her way back only by the 
light of the moon, whose position in the heavens was 
some guide in her wanderings. Nor would she have 
returned at all, had she not hoped that some one else 
had, in the mean while, brought back the child. 

On returning to the place from which she had started, 
she was distressed to learn that Orlee was not found, and 
she could scarcely be restrained from immediately start- 
ing again in pursuit of her. As Koree, however, had 
not 3^et returned, having searched farther and later than 
any, except Sosee, she hoped that he, inspired by her 

45 



46 


FROM MONKEY TOMAN. 


love, would come back with success. She had most 
confidence in him because she had most love for him, 
believing that what most pleased her fancy would best 
serve her purpose. 

Her first disappointment in love was when she saw Koree 
return without the child; for in this crisis she felt more 
for her sister than for her lover, the newly lost being ever 
dearer than the long loved. Koree had failed to meet 
her expectation, or rather her desire; and in times of 
disappointment the little that is lacking outweighs all 
that is not. 

“You have failed to bring back Orlee and the tail of 
the fat baboon,’’ she said, “Despair of my love till you 
fetch me both.’’ 

This was spoken in the half-articulate manner already 
explained, as was the balance of the conversation (which 
we translate, however, into modern expression). 

“What all the race of the Ammi could not do,” he 
replied, “you ought not to blame your lover for not 
accomplishing. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ The love of one, ’ ’ she retorted, ‘ ‘ can do more than 
the indifference of many. If Orlee is ever found it will 
be by love, and not by numbers.” 

“I will yet fetch her back,” he said; “love’s work is 
not exhausted in one effort, but requires time for its 
fruit. She will come in response to your love acting 
through mine. Neither man nor monkey shall defeat 
me, or excel me, in this task.” 

“Go, then,” she said, “and I will go with you. 
Dove co-operates, and never commands only.’’ 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


47 


“I will go,” he replied: “and not care whether I 
return. With Sosee at my side, I could roam forever, 
indifferent whither we come, so we be still together. 
Had we not gone alone before we would not have 
returned without Orlee; but we came back to see each 
other. lyOve left behind defeats its own purpose sent 
before. If we separate we will be hunting each other, 
instead of keeping our thoughts on Orlee.” 

“ I^et us then go,” she said, “ and keep ourselves and 
our purposes united, and resolve not to return till 
we come with her. ’ ’ 

“ I will go; for then will I have everything with me, 
and nothing to come back for.” 

‘ ‘ If you go for my company only, ’ ’ she said, ‘ ‘ and 
not for the child, you will soon have neither. To be my 
lover you must want what I want, and not merely want 
me; and if you db not get it you will soon be without 
me, for love must achieve success to be rewarded with 
love.” 

“ I want more your wish than my own, and will give 
up everything for it. ’ ’ 

“Except me.” 

“Yes, and you even.” 

“ You mean thing! I won’t go with you.” 

“Well,” he replied, “ I won’t go alone.” 

“ You don’t care for me a bit,” she said. 

“You only care for me to serve your purpose,” he 
retorted. 

“ I will get Kibboo to go with me,” she next said. 


48 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“ He may go,” replied Koree, “and I will stay with 
Alee till you return. She is a better climber, and can 
run faster than you.” 

“Boo! hoo! she has no hair on her back, and is 
meaner than you. She ran from a little snake which I 
could bite in two. ’ ’ 

“But she loves me, and never quarrels with me.” 

“She don’t love you; she only hates me, and wants to 
make you do so. She loves Ki, and picked the fleas off 
him when he came from the Swamp this evening.” 

“ Do you love me, Sosee ? ” he next asked with more 
tenderness. 

“ I won’t tell you,” she replied, sobbing. 

“ Will you go with me, and stay with me ? ” 

“ I never said I wouldn’t.” 

Here followed a long pause, during which Sosee sobbed 
and sighed, and Koree looked about in his mind for some 
excuse for making peace without seeming to want to. 
Sosee came to his relief, however, with a question. 

“Koree?” 

“Well?” 

‘ ‘ Will you go with ‘me to find Orlee ? ” 

Sosee, too proud to ask for his love, had asked for his 
service. 

“Yes,” he replied, glad to give both, “ and will not 
come back till we find her.” 

“Won’t that be delightful! to hunt and find her 
together ! ’ ’ 

“Yes,” he replied, “and let us start to-night, and 
before morning we may find her,” 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


49 


But night and weariness had settled down upon them, 
and as the older men and women had determined to wait 
till morning before recommencing the search, the two 
lovers concluded to do likewise, saying that they could 
then search with greater vigor. 

They then walked awhile, though weary, in the moon- 
light, and discoursed of love and Orlee, he speaking of 
his devotion and she of her confidence that he would 
bring back her sister. 

“How approvingly,” he said “the monkey in the 
moon looks down upon our love.” 

“And upon our resolution,” she replied. 

They then parted to sleep for the night; and soon their 
love, their weariness and their purpose were all forgot- 
ten, except in disturbed dreams, in which he thought of 
wandering through unknown swamps with Sosee, and 
she pictured the rescue of her sister by a heroic lover. 

In the silence and longing of .that night, however, 
Koree audibly breathed the following sentiment, which 
is the first poetry made by the human race* 

What is life 
Without a wife ? 


CHAPTER X. 


S rosy-colored Morn advanced 
to greet the opening eyes of 
monkeys and men, and spread 
her beams over Cocoanut 
Hill, lifting at last the veil 
of mists which hung over 
Alligator Swamp, a fat ba- 
boon was seen w^ending his 
way with a child in his arms 
to the settlement of the Lali. 
All night long he had tra- 
versed wood and swamp, picking his way through bush 
and fen, eluding the serpent and fleeing from the cry of 
the catamount, his only companion the moon, and his 
only hope the morning. 

‘ ‘ I have avenged the rape of Soolee, ’ ’ he said, as he 
approached the assembled Apes who were expecting the 
several warriors back which had gone to the country of 
the Ammi to recover the child that had been recently 
(Captured by them. 

Great chatterings and shouts of gratification went up 
from the Lali as they saw one of their number thus return 
victorious. Only the mother of Soolee appeared dis- 
tressed. 



50 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


51 


Where is my child ? she asked. 

“ I have brought one of the Ammi instead/* was the 
response of 'the warrior. 

“A man,** replied she, “is no compensation for a 
monkey ; and the finding of another is no comfort to a 
mother for the loss of her own.** 



I HAVE BROUGHT ONE OF THE AMMI INSTEAD. 


‘ ‘ You can have her for a slave, * ’ was the repl}’. ‘ ‘ You 
lost one, and you get one : it makes no difference whether 
you have the same or not.** 

The mother, however, was not satisfied, although the 
rest thought her grievance a small matter. The honor 
of the Apes was asserted by the reprisal ; and when the 


52 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


public interest is conserved the multitude cares little for 
the individual loss. 

Orlee was placed in charge of this woman, who, not- 
withstanding her dissatisfaction, was delighted, not only 
at having a child, but at the fact that it represented the 
vengeance of her people. This double relation to the 
infant made her both love the child and mistreat it, the 
first because it was a child, and the latter because it stood 
in place of her own. 

It was customary for the Apes, and also for the Men, 
when they had taken prisoners from each other, to reduce 
them to slavery, a custom which had arisen, however, 
only since their separation ; for, prior to that, they had 
neither property nor interest in each other’s work; and 
so neither man nor ape was believed to be worth anything. 
But, in acquiring property they put value on men as well 
as on cocoanuts, and kept each other as a treasure where 
before they had killed each other as a nuisance. Some 
even went to war for the prisoners, and the more valuable 
they found men to be the more they fought them, until 
they soon came to want enemies more than friends, and 
to like them better than allies. They fought for some- 
thing instead of against something, and numbered their 
prisoners rather than their victories. Both sides became 
kidnappers, instead of warriors, and the principle and 
practice of slavery was established, as a result of learn- 
ing the worth of men. 

The warrior Oboo, who had brought Orlee to the Lali, 
was seen all day to hang around the woman in whose 
charge the child had been placed. Some thought it was 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 53 

on account of his interest in the child ; but shrewder apes 
said it was on account of his interest in the woman. As 
the newly-arrived child had obtained a mother he thought 
it ought also to have a father. The female ape did not 
repel the advances of the warrior, but said that if he 
would also restore her own child he might be father to 
both. The mother was, however, much comforted for 
the loss of her child by this gain of a father for it. The 
two wanted both to attend to the new child, the result of 
which was that the child received no attention, which 
proved serious, as we shall see. For they paid so much 
attention to each other that they often wholly forgot the 
child. 

This warrior, Oboo, had not a good reputation among 
the Tali. Several scandals had already disgraced him, 
and his attention to this new woman was looked upon 
with suspicion. 

“ No good will come of it,” said an observant ape, who 
remembered his gallantries to others, and who was aware 
that he seized every pretext to ingratiate himself with a 
susceptible female ape. His bravery, however, had made 
him a favorite among the women, although his gallantry 
had much to do with it. He was a Simian ” Masher,” 
and, twice got his head pounded by male apes who did not 
like his attentions to their female friends. 

This ape was charged with starting out for the child, 
not because he wanted it, but because he wanted the 
mother, and because he hoped that his bravery would be 
rewarded with her love. Thus are the motives of apes, 
like those of men, impugned from jealousy, and our great- 


54 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


est warriors are traduced by their rivals. No pains were 
spared to suggest these suspicions to the woman herself, 
especially by another ape who had loved her, and had 
likewise started for her child and come back unsuccessful. 
These two male apes finally came together, and when one 
charged the other with cowardice, and was charged in 
turn with “spooniness,” they came to blows, or rather 
scratches, and would have killed each other had not the 
woman interposed. 

‘ ‘ There is not much difference between you in virtue, ’ ’ 
she said, ‘ ‘ and whoever brings back my child shall be 
thought the braver. ’ ’ 

“Will you give up that ape if I bring back your child?’ ’ 
asked the new-comer. 

“Yes, but I will stay with him till then for having 
brought this one,” was her reply. 

The ape departed at this rebuff, divided in his thoughts 
between the purpose of recovering the child and that of 
punishing his rival for his insolence and his success. 


CHAPTER XI. 



| HK morning after the quarrel 
and make-up between Koree 
and Sosee, these two lovers 
started out to rescue Orlee from 
the captivity just mentioned. 
They tried in vain to induce 
the Ammi to go out as a body 
to recapture her, but nearly all 
except these two had exhausted 
their strength and their interest 
the day before. An excitement 
did not last as long with the Ammi as with their present 
descendants, and when they were not all interested they 
were quickly reconciled to an outrage. Koree and Sosee, 
however, in their first ardor of love, knew no rest, and 
had not yet learned to dispair. 

Arming themselves, therefore, with clubs and sharp 
stones, they started around the Swamp, intending to 
travel by day and at night to steal upon the camp of the 
Tali and take the child by some artifice. They kept 
along the border of the Swamp, and where it was not too 
deep to wade, cut across its waters. The danger of 
neither wild beasts nor serpents terrified them. They 
were together, and were fixed on one purpose. Koree 

55 


56 


FROM MONKRY TO MAN. 


was willing to die with his Sosee, and Sosee believed she 
was in no danger with her Koree. So with resignation 
or confidence they marched on, heedless of a plunging 
alligator or swinging python which occasionally disturbed 
the stillness of the Swamp. Occasionally they stopped 
to gather mussels or climb after nuts; for they did not 
think it necessary to take provisions with them. The 
supplies of scouts and armies in those days were light — 
they foraged on the country. They marched without 
chart or compass, and yet rarely missed their way; for 
they had learned to guide themselves by the sun and the 
lay of the land. If occasionally, in the thick of the for- 
est, they could not get their bearings, they emerged from 
the swamp to look at the mountains with whose ranges 
they were familiar. 

It was not easy for primitive man to get lost, and it 
did not much matter if he was lost. Wherever he 
placed his foot he was at home, carrying his citizenship 
with him. Everywhere around were his possessions — 
the ungathered fruits and fish and game. Everywhere 
were his friends — the chance baboon or man that he 
might meet. Only recently, with the association which 
we mentioned, had there sprung up attachments for indi- 
viduals. Before that their love was for the race, and 
anyone represented that race about equally well, as in 
the case of dogs. Even since they had come to asso- 
ciate, their attachments were not permanent; and they 
relied much on chance-comers for their society. Should 
they, therefore, be lost, they would not feel that they 
were among strangers, any more than that they were 
away from home. 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


,57 


“If we do not find Orlee will we go back?” asked 
Koree. 

“ We will not go back till we find her,” replied Sosee. 

“We could live nicely in this forest,” said he; “ there 
is plenty of food, and we need no company.” 

“ When we find Orlee,” she replied, “we will have 
company.” 

“Two is company,” said he, “and when we find her 
and take her to her mother, shall we not come here to 
live?” 

“ Tet us first find her,” she persisted; “ we can then 
decide what to do next.” 

“There is nothing that we can lack here,” mused 
Koree; “a forest and a swamp include all human de- 
sires; ” and then, after a pause, he added, “ and Sosee.” 

“And Orlee,” interposed Sosee. 

“Love in a cottage ” was long antedated by “love in 
a forest. ’ ’ A sycamore tree was cottage enough for our 
first parents. 

“O! 01 0!0!” ejaculated Sosee, too frightened to 
say more, as she suddenly ran up a tree. 

“Oo! Oo! Oo! Oo!’^ shrieked Koree, as he ran up 
another tree. 

The cause of this sudden fright was a huge mammoth 
which slowly lifted itself from a, clump of bushes and 
walked toward the lovers. A great hairy elephant, twice 
as large as those now existing, with long front legs, carry- 
ing his bushy body high up in the air, and a back grad- 
ually sloping to the ground, like a girajBfe — such was the 
monster that confronted them. 



58 


KOREE AND SOSEE ENCOUNTER A MONSTER. 



FROM MONKEY TO MAl^, 59 

Sosee had run up a slim sapling which this beast could 
easily have torn up with his trunk, or from which he 
could have shaken her down like a cocoanut; while 
Koree had run up a tree stout enough, indeed, to resist 
uprooting or shaking, but so low that the monster could 
easily have reached him with his long trunk. Their 
safety lay, therefore, in their silence, and they were 
accordingly quiet, — quiet even for lovers. 

The mammoth was in no hurry to leave the place. 
He browsed about slowly, picking up bunches of grass, 
or reaching after leaves. Once he picked a trunk full of 
leaves from the tree in which Koree was sitting; but he 
took no notice of Koree, whether because he did not see 
him, or because he did not care for him. Koree and 
Sosee alone were concerned, — not the pachiderm. They 
remained simply quiet, and left the great beast in undis- 
puted possession of the field. Never were two lovers 
more cruelly interrupted, and never did an unwelcome 
intruder stay so long. 

‘ ‘ Two is company, ’ ’ said Koree to himself, ‘ ‘ and three 
is a great big crowd.” 

The lovers could neither touch nor speak. 

“Would that our trees were nearer,” whispered 
Koree. 

“Or stouter,” replied Sosee. 

* ‘ Or taller, ’ * returned Koree. 

“Never did I think,” muttered Sosee, “that any- 
thing so great could come between our love.” 

“ Ugh I ” shuddered they both. 

The huge beast kept on eating, unconscious that he 
was a bore. 


60 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“I wonder when that brute will get enough,” mut- 
tered Sosee in impatience. 

“If he is going to fill all that big carcass,” replied 
Koree, ” we are up here for all day,” 

‘ ‘ Our only hope is that the leaves of these trees will 
give out,” replied she, ” so that he must go elsewhere to 
finish his dinner.” 

‘ ‘ Or that he will want to take something to drink with 
his meal,” replied Koree, “and so go to the Swamp to 
wet his snout.” 

These breathings of the lovers were unnoticed by the 
monster, who took them for whisperings of the wind, 
and went on leisurely eating. 

“ Never did I see such an appetite,” .said Sosee. 

“Or one so contented with its dinner,” added Koree. 

” I don’t like this seat,” grumbled Sosee, ” I wish we 
were on the same tree.” 

‘ ‘ I neither want to sit up here, ’ ’ returned Koree, 
” nor get down.” 

“I’m hungry,” said Sosee, after a long pause. 
“Never did I sit so long at a meal, and not eat any- 
thing.” 

“ If this meal of the brute goes on much longer,” said 
Koree, “ we will both starve, or else be eaten.” 

Just then, to the inexpressible relief of the tired, 
hungry and bored lovers, the animal showed signs of 
satiety. He quit eating, looked around with an air of 
satisfaction, stretched himself, and made a start, as if 
about to leave the place. Their gratification, however, 
was short. He walked around a few steps, and then, to 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


61 


their dismay, lay down under the tree on which Koree 
was perched, and disposed himself for an afternoon nap. 

Koree looked at Sosee^ and was silent. 

Sosee returned the look, but was too disgusted and 
empty for utterance. 

“If that beast sleeps as long as he eats,” she said, 
“we will get neither supper nor slumber to night.” 

“We will, however,” returned Koree, “be safe; for 
neither ape nor snake will attack us with such a watch 
at our door. So one danger wards off another.” 

They were now reconciling themselves to spend the 
balance of the day, and perhaps the night, in this sit- 
uation, and also to add to their weariness, hunger and 
disgust, the additional discomforts of sleeplessness and 
danger. For as Sosee had never slept on a tree (the 
Ammi having come to the ground before her birth), it was 
feared that, although her feet were still prehensile, and 
served her well in climbing, they might fail her from 
lack of practice when it came to holding to a limb when 
asleep. Koree determined not to sleep under these cir- 
cumstances, both because he could not trust himself on 
a tree when asleep, and because he wanted to watch 
Sosee in order to rescue her from the mammoth in case she 
should fall. Love up a tree was thus faithful to the last. 

While they were making their preparations for a con- 
tinued disappointment, however, an accident, which at 
first seemed disastrous, came happily to their relief. 
Koree, in restlessly changing his position, fell off the 
tree, and came down with a thump on the back of the 
mammoth. 


62 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Whether Koree or the monster was more frightened we 
know not. Koree, however, was uninjured, the great 
beast breaking his fall, for the huge back of the animal 
reached, when lying down, well up toward the branches 
on which Koree was sitting. Sosee was, perhaps, the 
most frightened of all, as one is often most scared at the 
danger of another; and she gave a scream which the ani- 
mal hearing, believed, in connection with the thump on 
his back, to be caused by some other animal that was 
attacking him. 

He started from his sleep and his position at once, 
and, without looking for the cause of danger, rushed 
through the forest, while Koree ran up another tree and 
waited till the brute was at a safe distance. Then both 
he and Sosee came down, and returned thanks to the 
great Shoozoo for their deliverance. 


CHAPTER XII. 



two lovers had no other ad- 
venture until they came the 
next afternoon to the farther 
side of the swamp, where the 
lyali were settled. There they 
were astonished at the multi- 
titude of the Taii, who greatly 
outnumbered the Ammi, fairly 
swarming in the trees and in 
the open country beyond. 

It was not deemed safe to 
venture out of the Swamp in the presence of so many 
apes, some of whom would doubtless recognize them as 
belonging to the Ammi ; so they determined to hide in 
the bushes till night, and then reconnoitre. 

In the meantime they had abundant opportunity to 
watch the movements of the Apes, who kept in groups, 
as if fearing an attack, although an occasional one was 
seen alone, and some few came even into the Swamp. 
The two lovers did not fear the approach of single apes, 
or even of a small group ; for, as there were many varie- 
ties among the Lali, and not a single kind only, as 
among the Ammi, the appearance of a new kind raised 

63 


64 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


no suspicion. The Ammi, or Men, moreover, were 
hardly distinguishable from certain of the Lali, at least 
by the Apes. 

“ The chance of finding Orlee among so many,” said 
Sosee, ‘ ‘ is not good ; and if we find her we cannot take 
her from them.” 

“Wait till it is dark,” replied Koree, “ and the groups 
will disperse, when we can both approach them without 
suspicion, and carry her off without resistance. Trust 
your lover.” 

“ I trust you, or I should have not come with you, or 
have asked you to come,” she answered ; “but I see no 
way to accomplish our object.” 

“ Do you see that big baboon beyond the crowd walk- 
ing alone with an ape ? ” he next asked. ‘ ‘ He looks like 
the fellow that struck me when Orlee was carried off.” 

‘ ‘ It must be the same, ’ ’ replied Sosee ; “for there is a 
child near him which looks like Orlee.” 

“ I think that is only a young monkey,” replied Koree, 
‘ ‘ which has been taken out by its parents. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ The three pay no attention to the other Apes, ’ ’ replied 
Sosee, “ and are wandering still farther from them. Tet 
us approach them ; in their absorption it will cause no 
alarm.” 

“If it is the baboon which I think it is, he will know 
me,” replied Koree. “At least I cannot mistake him.” 

“If we could get a little nearer,” said she, “I could 
tell whether it is Orlee or not.” 

“ But we cannot get near the child without getting near 
the parents,” replied Koree. 



I^ROM MONKEV TO MAN. 


65 


“She has wandered off from her keepers,” retorted 
Sosee. “ Let us approach slowly.” 

Wait till it is darker,” said he. “ We can then get 
near enough to recognize her without being recognized 
by them.” 

‘ ‘ They pay no attention to the child, ’ ’ continued she, 
‘ ‘ which is moving away from them ; and if she goes much 
farther we can get near enough to see her distinctly with- 
out their noticing us.” 

‘ ‘ They seem,' however, ’ ’ said he, “ to be much interested 
in something. Such earnestness among monkeys has a 
meaning.” 

“It cannot concern the child,” replied she, “and 
between their absorption and her distance, we can get her 
away while they are thinking about themselves. ’ ’ 

“ I hate the looks of that baboon,” mused Koree. 

“ I like the looks of that child,” replied Sosee. 

“ I will get her if it is Orlee,” he said, “but I want to 
avoid a blow from that brute. We had better be sure it 
is Orlee before we take the risk of a broken head in find- 
ing out.” ' 

‘ ‘ The child keeps upright far more than the others, 
which makes me think it is not theirs, ’ ’ said Sosee, 

‘ ‘ I should like to have the child just to avenge the blow 
I received,” said Koree; “but I don’t want to have a 
second blow to avenge.” 

“ I will fake the blow if you will get the child,” replied 
Sosee. 

‘ ‘ As long as the two old apes are so near it, we could 
not carry it off if we got it,” he said. “ They would 
pursue us and overtake us with our load.” 


66 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“ Two ought to be able to resist two ; -and Orlee would 
help us, ’ ’ replied she. 

‘ ‘ Before our fight could end the other apes would come 
to their succor, ’ ’ said he. 

“ Perhaps,” ■ suggested Sosee, “they would give up 
Orlee if I would stay with them instead.” 

‘ ‘ I do not like that suggestion, ” replied Koree, ‘ ‘ I will 
get Orlee and keep you. Would you rather have Orlee 
than me ? ” 

“ I was not thinking of that, but only of Orlee.” 

They had now approached near enough to see the girl 
distinctly, whom they recognized to be Orlee. She had 
wandered so far from her keepers that they did not observe 
the approaching lovers. Koree and Sosee concluded to 
steal up to Orlee, and, without raising any suspicion, lead 
her in the direction of the Swamp and then hurry with 
her into the bushes where they could not be followed. 
As it was getting dark the time seemed propitious for 
their scheme. 

The couple in charge of Orlee, were, as will be sur- 
mised, Oboo, the ape who had carried her off, and the 
woman Oola, in whose charge she had been placed. 
This ape continued his attendance on this woman with- 
out interruption, having, while the other Tali were amus- 
ing themselves in groups, wandered off with her and the 
child to be alone. This accounts for their distance from 
the rest of the Apes. They were so much absorbed, 
moreover, with each other, that they did not notice that 
the child, Orlee, had wandered away from them, and was 
now almost out of their sight, and entirely out of their 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


67 


thoughts. Oboo and the woman simply kept up their 
love-making, while Koree and Sosee were approaching 
their prize. What made one pair of lovers forgetful 
made. the other pair alert. I^ove shuts and opens the 
eyes of mortals in turn, and lays off the harness from 
one which it puts on another. 

As soon as Orlee recognized her sister she gave a 
scream of joy which disconcerted the plans of Soste and 
Koree. It also startled Oboo and the woman out of 
their bliss, who now experienced all the horrors of inter- 
ruption which the other two lovers had suffered the day 
before on the ai)pearance of the mammoth. Oboo felt 
most disappointed, and the woman most frightened. 
They sprang up, and, for a minute, were bewildered, 
thinking that some curious apes, perhaps rivals, had 
come suddenly upon them, through jealousy or stupidity, 
to interrupt their tete-a-teie. The woman instinctively 
sprang in the direction of the child, while Oboo looked 
around to see who was the cause of the interruption. 
Soon they both took in the situation and started in pur- 
suit of the child. 

Koree, perceiving that no time was to be lost, had 
picked up the ctild and started for the Swamp, Sosee 
following at full speed. The child, frightened by the 
bustle, sef" up a combined screaming and chattering, 
which attracted the attention of the other Apes and called 
a large number of them into the pursuit. The scene for 
a few minutes was like that of a couple of foxes pursued 
by a pack of hounds, in which the foxes were fast mak- 
ing for the woods. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


ly now depended on whether 
Koree and Sosee with the 
child could reach the 
Swamp in time to conceal 
themselves before the lyali 
should arrive. For so dense 
was the under-growth in 
the Swamp that it was next 
to impossible to discover 
man of beast that should 
attempt to hide there. 

Sosee could easily have gained the Swamp in time for 
safety, but Koree, who was encumbered with the child, 
and so could not run as fast as she, was in danger of cap- 
ture by Oboo, who was fast gaining upon him. Sosee, 
indeed, had already reached the Swamp, and was about to 
plunge into its thickets and out of danger, when she 
turned to see if Koree and the child were making their 
escape. 

She was horrified to perceive that the pursuers were 
close upon them; and so, instead of saving herself, she 
turned on them, and made a desperate effort to rescue her 
companions. Before she could reach them, however, 
Koree was overtaken by Oboo, when, releasing the child. 



68 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


69 


he dealt Oboo a powerful blow, which stunned him, and, 
at the same time, avenged the blow received by Koree 
from the same ape some days before. Sosee now came 
up, and, flying at the a'pe with screams and scratches^ 
dealt him another blow scarcely less severe than that 
administered by Koree. These two blows compelled the 
ape to loose his hold for the moment. 



THE RESCUE OF OREEE. 

Released in this way from his pursuers, Koree picked 
up the child and again started for the woods, while the 
ape, recovering from his blows, again started in pursuit. 
He was gaining on Koree a second time, and would have 
overtaken him again, had not the course of Koree and 


70 I^ROM MONKEY I'D MAN. 

Sosee now begun to diverge; for in their anxiety to 
escape neither had noticed the direction taken by the 
other in their new start, and so they became separated. 

Oboo, observing the beauty and agility of Sosee, felt a 
desire to possess her which outweighed his anxiety for 
the child. “She is prettier than the old woman,” he. 
said to himself, “and I will go for her.” Oboo always 
had time, even in a fight or a race, to observe an attract- 
ive female, and his head was invariably turned by the 
sight, no matter at what business he was engaged. He 
accordingly turned from the pursuit of Koree and Orlee, 
and started after the girl. The scratches and pounding 
which he had received from her were no warning to him, 
but rather increased his infatuation by testifying to her 
spirit. lyove at first sight is greater among Apes than 
among Men, and overcomes more obstacles. Accustomed 
to fight for their females, and often to take them by over- 
coming them in fight, the love of our primitive ancestors 
was often “love at first fight.” Oboo, therefore, forgot 
his herosim in his passion, and, abandoning all that he 
had set out to accomplish, started in pursuit of his pleas- 
ure before he was yet out of his pain, and thought of 
enjoying the caresses of a lover, while still smarting 
under her blows. The battle of Mars thus turned into 
the battle of Cupid, and the warrior, turned lover, con- 
tinued the pursuit without much changing his method. 

While Oboo was thus pursuing Sosee, Koree with the 
child in his arms had reached the thicket, and was safe. 
Other apes came up, indeed, to the edge of the swamp, 
and penetrated its depths; but, as it was getting dark. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


71 


they soon turned back, discontinuing the pursuit. While 
there were many things to be found in the Swamp, their 
experience had taught them that nothing was ever found 
there which was sought for. They might get other apes 
or other game, but any particular thing that had escaped 
in that tangled waste was deemed irretrievably lost. 

In the mean time the pursuit of Sosee continued, 
lyove added its inspiration to that of prowess in the 
breast of her pursuer. Oboo ran for both pleasure and 
glory. He must have the girl both because he wanted 
her, and because he dared not return without her. 
Hence he ran as one who had everything at stake; and 
so did she. Like Camilla, scouring the plain, she put 
the Ape- land far behind her, while the distant forest 
seemed, like Birnam Wood, to be fast approaching her. 

Like the timid hare pursued by the hunter, which 
darts straight for the shelter of the thick brush or dense 
cedars, her ears laid back upon her shoulders, and her 
feet in the air, gliding with a billowy motion to a place 
of safety, so the swift Sosee ran, measuring off the rapid 
miles under her feet, while her panting warrior-lover, 
hotly pursuing, sought to take her ere she should find a 
refuge in the dense groves beyond. 

Sosee at last gained the swamp, and was secure from 
the determined Oboo, who saw her disappear at once out 
of his sight and out of his hope. The other apes, more- 
over, which had pursued from a distance, abandoned the 
chase when they saw her enter the jungle, as a dog 
ceases to pursue a bird which has flown into the air. 

5ut while she thus escaped her pursuers, she did not 


72 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


SO easily escape those who awaited her. Scarcely had 
she entered the forest when she was met by several apes 
who were returning from the pursuit of Koree. These, 
seeing Sosee approach the forest, ran along its border 
(still keeping behind the foliage), with a view of heading 
her off.. These now sprang suddenly upon her, and, 
after a short struggle, made her a prisoner. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


OSKE was led back to the 
settlement of the Eali, 
where she was the admira- 
tion of all the Apes. Her 
bright face, her beautiful 
form, and her shapely limbs 
fixed the attention of old 
and young. Her captors 
were particularly proud and 
received the congratula- 
tions of all the rest, who 
had now returned from the pursuit of the fugitives. 

Oboo alone was unhappy. He was disappointed, both 
because he did not capture the girl, and because another 
did. One’s loss is greatest when it is another’s gain. 
He had visions of love which he must now exchange for 
those of jealousy. Quick to conceive a fancy he was 
slow to give it up. Started on a pursuit of love, he was 
never satisfied till he had achieved a success. And, to 
make his condition worse, the woman Oola, in whose 
charge Orlee had been given, and to whom Oboo had 
been making love, flew into a rage because he had 
allowed Orlee to escape. 



73 


74 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN, 


“I am now wholly without a child,” she said; “you 
are no ape, to fail to overtake a boy encumbered with a 
girl. You sought my love only to betray me, and now I 
am without either lover or child; for with you I will have 
nothing more to do. You care less for me than for the 
girl whom you followed, instead of my child. If you 
ever make a soft face at me again, I will scratch out your 
eyes. I have lost everything through your unmonkey- 
like conduct.” 

Oboo had not much to say, for he could not talk any- 
thing well except love, and that he could not talk in 
company. So he took her reproaches, but felt humil- 
iated; and his embarrassment was increased by the rail- 
lery of the others, who said he could love but could not 
run, and that in the tussel with the girl, he had been 
beaten. They were so merry at his expense, all the com- 
pany joing in, that he got his “’monkey up,” and, 
becoming enraged, vented his ill humor on Ilo, the suc- 
cessful ape, who had brought back Sosee. 

“You could not have caught her,” he said, “ if I had 
not driven her into your arms. ’ ’ 

“You would never drive a girl into another’s arms, if 
you could avoid it,” replied Ilo; at which the company 
chattered merrily their assent. 

‘ ‘ I should have caught her, ” he said ‘ ‘ had you not 
interfered. She 'was already mine, and you only took 
after her after she was captured.” 

“I suppose,” replied the other, “you would like to 
have her, now that you have lost the^old woman.” 

“lam entitled to her,” he said, “ and I shall take her 
from you.” 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


75 


“You could not keep her when you had her,” replied 
Ilo; “ and do you expect taboth take her from me and 
keep her yourself ? ” 

“You got her by chance, and could not help taking 
her when she ran into your arms. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I notice, however, that you did not take her when 
she ran into your arms,” was the reply. 

“I will show you,” said Oboo, “that lean take her 
from both herself and her captor;” at which he seized 
the girl, and was about to lead her away, when the other 
dealt him a severe blow. 

This was the signal for a great fight. Oboo sprang at 
the assailant, striking him with hand and foot. The 
latter then flew at Oboo with both hands, seizing him by 
the neck. There was now a hand to hand struggle, in 
which Oboo tried to punch the stomach of his rival, while 
the latter tried to throw Oboo to the ground. Oboo with 
his great jaws seized the shoulder of Ilo, who, in turn, 
dealt Oboo a blow with the other hand, and then bit off 
his ear. They now fought with both hands and feet and 
jaws, and the region round about echoed with their 
growls. Oboo^ was finally thrown to the ground, when 
the other jumped upon him, and nearly beat out his 
breath. As often as he tried to rise the other knocked 
him down, and sat upon him. The victory was evi- 
dently with Ilo, and Oboo would have fared worse had 
not the woman, who really started the quarrel, now inter- 
fered to end it. She took the part of her quondam lover, 
for whom she discovered a lingering affection, as soon as 
she saw that he was likely to be slain. She growled and 


76 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


seized the victorious ape, and, after a little struggle be- 
tween the three, Oboo was alowed to get up and walk 
away. Too weak to fight and too cross not to, he gave 
some savage growls as he retreated, and threatened to 
whip his contestant and take away the girl at another 
time. 

Oboo felt that this was an inglorious day for him — to 
lose two lovers and get one thrashing. He had, how- 
ever, only himself to blame. He persisted in making 
love when he should have been watching a captive. He 
failed to catch either a young man or a young girl, and 
when the latter ran into his arms, he failed to retain her, 
but got worsted in the struggle which ensued; and when 
he finally would avenge his failures on a ' more successful 
ape, he was ingloriously beaten. He therefore lost 
prestige, military and social, for which he said all the 
Apes would have to suffer. He was more angry after 
his fights than in them, so that his rage came at a time 
when it could not serve him. Monkeys, like men, are 
more angry at others for their own failures than for any- 
thing else, and so Oboo determined to avenge his own 
blunders on others. 

The only one who showed him any sympathy was the 
woman Oola, who got him into all his- trouble. She 
indicated a willingness to take him back into favor. But 
Oboo was too cross to entertain proposals even of love, 
and he went grumbling away, like Achilles, to meditate 
mischief and make himself more miserable. 


CHAPTER XV. 


CH was the wrath of Oboo, 
great monkey from beyond 
the Swamp, w^hich, kindled 
by defeated love, against all 
mortals, sent many souls of 
heroes to the Shades, and 
gave their bodies a prey to 
beasts and birds. Unap- 
peased it flamed in wars un- 
quenchable, and almost sent 
the human race out of his- 
tory, and gave back the earth to monkeys, snakes and 
wide-spreading marshes. 

Instigated by the woman who had lost her child, and 
who was for a second time bereaved by the loss of its sub- 
stitute, Oboo proposed the, next day that Sosee be given 
back to the Amnii, in exchange for the child first cap- 
tured. This'was suggested, not because he cared for the 
child, but because he desired to punish the ape who had 
got possession of Sosee. If he could not himself have 
the girl, he did not want another to have her. Such 
jealousy was in the minds of sub-mortals. 

This the swift-footed Ilo, captor of Sosee, stoutly 
resisted. “If you touch a hair of that maiden,” he said, 

77 



78 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“I will jump with both feet against your belly and 
scratch out all monkeydom. To your licking of last 
night I will add your death to-day. Hear me, O Shoo* 
zoo, if ever monkey was so wronged as I, and help me 
to avenge myself upon this insolent gusher, who has 
already made love to all the apes, and now wants my 
little and dear prize, which alone is to comfort my home, 
and gather my plantains in the far off forests of the 
uplands.’^ 

And he walked along the shore of the loud-roaring 
frog pond. 

In' the meantime Koree, who had eluded his pursuers, 
was picking his wa}^ through the Swamp, carrying Orlee 
in his arms and Sosee in his heart, hoping that his be- 
loved was likewise threading her way by another route to 
the Ammi, where they would soon meet to enjoy perpet- 
ually their love. This consummation, however, was not 
to be reached so soon; but many adventures must first be 
encountered by both. 

As he journeyed on he saw a great cloud spreading 
over the Swamp, darkening the skies, so that he sup- 
posed that Night had suddenly settled down upon Day. 
Great swarms of bats came out and filled the air with 
their dull beatings, which added terror to the mystery. 

Then followed a great rain, or flood from the skies, 
which, though lasting but a few minutes, came in such 
torrents that trees were broken in two and all the land 
submerged. Koree believed that the Sea had suddenly 
come upon the Tand with the Night, and that Death had 
come with both to claim him and all things else. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


79 


The sun, however, soon came out, reviving his hope ; 
but it came sa hot, that though it scarcely penetrated the 
thick foliage, which was matted with tangled vines, it 
generated stifling gases, which, rising from the damp 
shades, nearly strangled him; so that, having escaped 
death from the water, he now expected it from the air. 

Next came a great terror, and he expected to die from 
fright. There was a desperate battle between a hippo- 
potamus and an alligator which reddened the yellow 
flood, and stirred it into a wilder foam than the great 
rain had done. The alligator he believed to be the great 
Dragon of Shoozoo, or Devil of the Watery World. 

■ Soon the whole swamp was filled with animals. 
Called out by the rain, some had come to feed, knowing 
that the waters, stirred by the shower, would be alive 
with fish and reptiles, while others — great land animals 
— had been disturbed in their lairs by the washout. 
Among these last was a great three* toed tapir, which 
seemed to be lost; and, following near it, came a more 
graceful animal, having a long tail and two-toed feet, 
forming a kind of intermediate type between a hog and 
a deer. These two animals were closely watched by a 
cave lion, which, washed out of his cave by the flood, 
was approaching them stealthily in hope of a meal. 
The sight was one of mingled fear and relief to Koree; 
for if the lion had •not his eye on some desirable game, 
he would have attacked him. He awaited, therefore, 
with anxiety the next movements of the beasts, expect- 
ing another fight like that between the hippopotamus 
and the alligator, when a more dreadful sight alarmed 




FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


81 


both him and the lion, as well as the game which the 
lion was pursuing, and started them all in different 
directions. 

This was the appearance of a Dinotherium running at 
full speed, with another animal on its back, both engaged 
in a fatal conflict. This Dinotherium looked to Koree 
like a moving 'hill, so huge were his dimensions. He 
was a combination of elephant, camel and kangaroo, 
having a huge hunch on his back, powerful tusks issu- 
ing from his jaws, and a pouch underneath, like our 
Marsupials. The beast on his back was what is known 
to scientists as a Machairodus, a terrible, carniverous, 
cat-like creature, with long saber-shaped canines in its 
upper jaw, fitting it to pull down and destroy the huge 
pachyderms (which could easily shake of a lion or 
tiger.) This monster and This terror of the forest, which 
together seemed like all the great animals rolled into one, 
were now united in a death deal. While the cat-like 
beast was fastening its fangs in the flesh of the other, 
the latter tried alternately to shake him off and to roll 
over him. But the savage beast, with great skill, 
defeated these attempts. The huge monster next tried 
to run under the horizontal limb of a tree, which, though, 
high, was yet too low to permit him to pass under with 
his load. Koree thought that the beast on top would 
now be scraped off; but not so. On approaching the 
limb he jumped over it, like a circus- rider, and alighted 
on the running beast on the other side. The two now 
darted on through the Swamp, and at last plunged into a 
deep lake. The rider was thrown from his place, and, 


82 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


as he could not swim, was drowned. The other, how- 
ever, which was accustomed to navigate the lakes of this 
region, and often entered even the open sea, swam 
across the lake (a deep pool in the slough,) and there, 
after floating awhile, like a ship unable to find a harbor, 
moored himself to the bank with his tusks; and in this 
position Koree left him. 

‘ ‘ Where can Sosee be during this flood ? ’ ’ soliloquized 
Koree, as he started again on his way; “and will she 
escape the rage of all these beasts? “ He remembered, 
however, her agility in climbing trees, and her repeated 
escapes from greater dangers; so that his fears were soon 
calmed in his confidence, and the thought of meeting 
her again made him quickly forget the great forces of 
nature and animals which he had just seen in their 
struggles. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


HKN Koree returned with 
his charge to the Ammi, 
these were engaged in one 
of their sports, which con- 
sisted in throwing cocoa- 
nuts, and the rush of all to 
get them, much as their 
descendants now play foot- 
ball. Some of the younger 
ones amused themselves by 
racing up and down the 
trees, trying to catch one 
another, and occasionally shaking each other from the 
branches. One little girl had caught a skunk which she 
was trying to feed with figs, to the great disgust of the 
skunk. All had apparently forgotten the absent ones ; 
for the memory of our first ancestors was short, not hav- 
ing yet been exercised on history. 

“I told you to drop that skunk,” said an old woman, 

‘ ‘ and had you minded me you would not now be sneez- 
ing and spitting so violently. Go down to the spring 
and wash yourself.” 

Just then a cocoanut flying through the air, struck the 
woman in the eye, and for a moment she did not know 

83 



84 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


whether it was the odor from the skunk, or a ball from 
the players that knocked her down. 

“I told you to be careful with your cocoanuts,” she 
said, “ and had you minded me you would not get this 
shaking;” at which she seized the nearest player by the 
hair and administered several pulls and scratches. 

Finally Koree made his appearance, leading Orlee by 
the hand. His first anxiety was to know whether 
Sosee had returned, whom he was alarmed not to see 
among the players. The mother of Orlee ran franticly 
to receive her child, which she fondled with an incoher- 
ent chattering. 

‘ ‘ Where is Sosee ? ’ ’ asked Koree. 

‘ ‘ Where is Sosee ? ’ ’ asked the mother at the same time. 

Both looked at each other in amazement, and no words 
were needed to express their mutual disappointment. 

“Have you restored to me one child only to lose 
another ? ” asked the mother reproachfully. 

“ Have I lost a lover,” replied Koree, “ only to rescue 
a baby ? ” 

Both, forgetful of what they had, were about to quar- 
rel over what they had not. Koree, however, was the 
more inconsolable, because he had lost all that he went 
for, which he had, indeed, before starting, and went to 
retain rather than to acquire. For he went for Sosee 
rather than for Orlee, seeking the latter only that he 
might not lose the former. 

“Wait,” said Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, “and 
she may yet return. She is doubtless in the swamp 
detained by some attraction or difficulty.” 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


85 


“Sosee, unincumbered and swift of foot,” replied 
Koree, “ would not be longer in returning than I with 
the child. She has either been re-captured by the Lali, 
or else met with a disaster in the swamp. Perhaps the 
lion I saw chasing the tapirs devoured her;” and he 
grieved like Pyramus mourning for Thisbe. 

lyittle did he think that at that moment she was the 
cause of a quarrel between Oboo and Ilo in the far off 
land of the lyali. The mother was less concerned, both 
because she was in the first joys of receiving a restored 
child, and because, in addition to the uncertainty as to 
whether Sosee w’ould not return, it was not customary 
for our ancestors of that day to concern themselves 
about their grown children. When their offspring had 
passed the disabilities of infancy, they were allowed to 
shift for themselves. Orlee, being still a child, was, 
therefore, dearer to the mother than Sosee; and so, 
measurably content with the former, she was willing to 
trust the other to her lover or herself. 

When Koree, however, became satisfied that Sosee was 
lost, he resolved to find her; and, as his fears, early per- 
suaded him that she was lost (since fear acts faster in the 
absence and confidence in the presence of lovers,) he re- 
solved at once to get up an expedition for her recapture. 

To set all doubt at rest about her whereabouts, some 
neutral monkeys, who had recently visited the Lali in a 
migration southward, now car^e to the Ammi. They 
informed the latter that the chief talk among the Tali 
was about the capture of a beautiful girl, and the quarrel 
of two apes over her possession. They said also that 


86 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


they heard it intimated among the I^ali, that as the girls 
of the Ammi were more beautiful than those of the Lali, 
they had a project to capture more of them. 

Armed with this information and these threats, Koree 
now went about to rouse the infant race of men to arrns. 
Rumor went before him, and that which had been a hint 
soon became an assertion. Horrid tales of captured 
maidens filled the imaginations of Cocoanut Hill. The 
young women were especially interested, sqme hoping 
they would escape capture, and others that they would 
not. The old men and women were indifferent, espec- 
ially as babies were not to be captured. But the young 
men were easily aroused, especially those who had lov- 
ers, and they determined to defend their own. 

A league was, therefore, entered into by the young 
men of the Ammi, which the older men soon after 
joined, to proceed, like the united princes of Greece, to 
re-capture the stolen maiden and restore her to this ear- 
lier Menelaus. Another and older siege of Troy was 
thus planned, which, like many battles greater than 
Homer’s, was lost to history, and can now be restored 
only by meager relics saved from the past. 

Let us then proceed, Homer-like, to build up the his- 
tory of this war, as the mammoth has been rebuilt by 
putting together here and there a bone, and as Roman 
history has been constructed by inspecting coins and 
broken statues. Greater battles are lost than any 
that are retained in history. The greatest throes of 
earth and of its inhabitants have escaped even tradition, 
and are now to be exhumed only from the forgotten. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


87 


We dig up history as we do potatoes, and wonder that 
so much activity has been buried. History is now 
built from this end, and long periods of forgetfulness 
are being reclaimed. I^ike the bridges which span the 
Mississippi, we throw up great highways across pre- 
historic periods, and prospect in times and lauds beyond 
the known. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


SY now were the prepara- 
tions for dire war. Not that 
troops were to be armed, or 
supplies collected for a long 
campaign. No vessels were 
to be fitted out to cross the 
Swamp, or ambulances pre- 
pared for the wounded. No 
loans were to be _ negotiated 
or preliminaries of diplomacy 
settled. The early men were 
alv/ays ready for war, in fact 
were always at war. One of the first advances of man- 
kind was made when wars were separated from peace 
and men observed the difference. As yet war was the 
natural state, and never had to be declared. Whenever 
a man met an ape, or even a wild beast, the signal was 
given for a fight. The race had not yet learned peace, 
which had to be learned before war, the arts of peace 
being all of later development. Men had fists before 
they had plows, and took their food before they pro- 
duced it. 

But the Ammi were, nevertheless, busy with prepara- 
tions for war. Those are often busiest who have least to 

88 , 



FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


89 


do. The excitement made them active, and they rushed 
about impatient to begin the fray. They had not yet 
learned to wait, or to take time for things. To resolve 
was, as yet, to commence. Unaccustomed to those great 
achievements which require time for preparation, they 
would enter into a long war as quickly as into a single 
battle. Had they found their enemy they would have 
fought that day. The battle generally comes too late for 
savages, the impulse for war being expended before the 
fight begins. 

Still a few things had to be prepared. While they ex- 
pected to get their rations from the Swamp, and to rely 
on some stone heap for weapons, they remembered that 
in the few years of their separate life as Men they had 
accumulated some wealth. This it was thought best to 
protect. They had large quantities of cocoanuts and 
other fruits in their dens; they had made some valuable 
instruments of stones and shells; their dug-outs them- 
selves were worth much to them, and would likely be 
destroyed in their absence; for all which reasons some of 
the older men opposed the project of war; for wealth is 
always a promoter of peace. 

“It is better to keep our caves and cocoanuts,” said 
Oko, a stingy fellow, “then to get back a girl.” 

Their very position in the Cocoanut Hill region was 
deemed valuable on account of its abundant fruits and 
its nearness to the Swamp with its game. They found it 
advisable, therefore, to protect their homes and country, 
and for that purpose determined to leave some at home. 
They learned also that some of their implements might 


90 FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 

be used in war, or rather recalled the fact, since they 
were first invented for purposes of war; and it took 
some time to select what they wanted and to provide for 
its transportation. Some, not accustomed to hunt, or 
not liking the products of the Swamp, concluded to 
take with them the sweetest nuts and juiciest fruits of 
the Cocoanut Hill region, while others were busy deter- 
mining the best route to the other side of the Swamp. 

These things required activity, and men and women 
were accordingly busy preparing for war. For the war- 
riors were not confined to men. There were amazons 
before there were belles. Woman’s equality in public 
affairs was recognized before her inferiority, and equal 
rights were as yet the law of the race. Instead of leav- 
ing the women behind to protect their homes, they con- 
cluded to leave the old and the children behind, while 
the able-bodied of both sexes were all to go to the field. 
Oko, the stingy fellow just mentioned, proposed to kill 
off the non-combatants, as they would eat all the cocoa- 
nuts before the warriors should return, and perhaps not 
let the latter again have possession of their homes. 

“You greedy ape,” replied one to this suggestion, 

‘ ‘ you have not yourself gathered all the fruit you now 
have; you took some from others’ dens. I saw in your 
hole a wedge which I made for myself, and a marrow 
bone sharpened by a woman. You would now like to 
kill them lest they get back what you stole from them.” 

At this the avaricious ape, Oko, threw a cocoanut shell 
at the speaker, but took care that it was an empty one, for 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


91 


he was SO economical, since he had begun the collection 
of nuts, that he never wasted anything. 

The other threw back a filled cocoanut at him, and 
knocked him down. His generosity in using a whole 
nut served him a good turn, for liberality is necessary in 
war, where one may be too stingy even to fight, and lose 
a battle because he begrudges the price of the weapon. 
Oko picked up the cocoanut, and — kept it. The Ammi 
now expected a desperate struggle between the two men; 
but, one being satisfied with his victory and the other 
with his gain, they parted, one going off with an air of 
triumph, and the other with a cocoanut. 

Other disputes arose over various details in the con- 
duct of the war, but none broke out into violence. 

“Whose girl will Sosee- be if we*get her back?” 
asked one. 

“Mine!” replied Koree, defiantly. 

“Are we all to fight, and only one to get the advan- 
tage of it ? ” asked another. 

“You must fight,” retorted Koree, “or you will lose 
all you have. The restoration of my girl means the pro- 
tection of yours.” 

“If I capture her,” replied a third, “neither Koree 
nor any one else will get her. A girl, like a cocoanut, 
belongs to whomsoever gets her.” 

“Whoever gets her,” replied Koree, “will get a 
broken head if he does not restore her to me.” 

It was now feared that this altercation would lead to a 

% 

civil war before the foreign war should commence; when 
the thoughts of the company were turned by the sug- 


92 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


gestion of Oko, the stingy fellow mentioned, that the 
Lali had doubtless acquired some possessions, so that 
they would all return laden with the spoils of war. 

“If it were not so,” he added, “ I would not fight at 
all.” 

“Perhaps,” suggested one of the young men, “there 
are also some pretty apes among them, so that instead of 
one girl we may bring back many — enough for all.” 

“Sosee must be recovered first,” said Koree, “ when I 
will help you to catch all the rest.” 

Some, however, could not be made to understand what 
the war was for. 

“ I can see no cocoanuts in it,” said one. 

“ I don’t want my eyes scratched out,” added another, 
who had lately become interested in a girl who was sit- 
ting beside him; “nor do I want her injured.” 

“ Who knows,” asked a third, “ if we shall ever meet 
again ? I fear we shall lose this place and lose one 
another.” 

‘ ‘ Why did Koree lose his girl ? ’ ’ asked another. ‘ ‘ He 
should not have taken her into danger. ’ ’ 

“ Men and warriors 1 ” interposed Koree at this point, 
fearing an insubordination that might be disastrous, “is 
this your resolution? A little while ago you were impa- 
tient for battle. Now you are seeking excuses for peace. 
None of you are worthy of such honor as awaits us. 
The defeat of the Lali will give glory to the Ammi, and 
many women and stores. We will divide their country 
among us, or, at least, have no more trouble from them. 
You fight not for me only but for yourselves, and fight 


,FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


93 


that you may have to fight no more. For, this war will 
destroy all our enemies. ‘ Now swear to me not only that 
■ you will go to the war (for that you have already done) , 
but that you will never abandon it till Sosee is restored. ’ ’ 
This they all swore by scratching their ribs, and again 
there was harmony in the counsels of war. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


E war being resolved upon 
preparations now went on, 
and consumed so much time 
that many again lost inter- 
est. They grew impatient, 
first at the preparations, and 
then at the expected war 
itself, and so had to be re- 
peatedly stirred up by new 
infusions of resolution. 
Koree superintended the 
preparations, whose chief work was to keep the minds of 
the people prepared ; for our early ancestors could not 
hold a resolution as long as we. Their anger was soon 
cool, like their love, and their attention went rapidly from 
one subject to another. 

‘ ‘ Hollow out some water-melons, ’ ’ said Koree, ‘ ‘ in 
which to carry our weapons. ’ ’ 

The Ammi had used melon rinds for vessels, when 
they wanted something larger than a cocoanut shell. 
These lasted, indeed, but a short time, but they were 
easily replaced. 

“Water-melons are too heavy,” said one, “and will 
spoil before we reach the enemy. Eet us use bark which 
can be tied at the ends and hung over our shoulders.” 

94 



FROM MONRFY TO MAN. 


95 


Some, accordingly, took bark, but many preferred 
melons or gourds, which, however, they exchanged for 
bark before proceeding far. It takes experience to learn 
what is best for war or peace. 

** Sharpen your clubs,” said Koree, “but only at one 
end. I^et the other end be blunt, so as to serve for a 
staff in marching and a weapon in battle.” 

They accordingly sharpened their clubs, which served 
as spears, and also aided them in digging for roots, clams 
and other provisions. 

They also provided split bones and broken cocoanut 
shells, which were sharp, and so served both as weapons 
to cut and implements to dig. 

Some thought of still other things which might be 
useful in war, and filled their bark knapsacks with so 
much that, when they were ready to start they were so 
hopelessly overloaded that they could scarcely move. 
But they gained experience on the way, and soon learned 
what to leave as well as what to take, thus acquiring early 
the soldier’s virtue of learning to throw away. 

The greedy fellow Oko, already mentioned, wanted 
them to carry all their stores with them, and he tried to 
get others to help carry his. 

“We helped you gather those stores,” said one, “and 
will not serve j^ou again by carrying them after you have 
taken them from us.” 

“ I did not take them by force,” he answered, 

“No,” replied the first, “because you would not 
fight; but you stole them, or persuaded us to give them 
■ to you.” 


I^ROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


M 


“ I always gave you something in exchange.” 

• “True, but it was in each case something worth less.''* 
Oko was the first man that had learned to cheat, his 
avariciousness being distorted into dishonesty which 
easily deceived them, since men, though they early 
learned to resist force, were slow to withstand guile. 

Being unable to get help in carrying his stores he con- 
cluded to stay at home to watch them, when the thought 
of getting greater stores from the Tali again changed 
his mind; and his voice was now for war. 

The preparations thus went on, and all seemed propi- 
* tious for a successful campaign, when suddenly a tre- 
mendous shock was felt. A mountain range in the 
distance rose to the sky, forming a ridge of the Alps. A 
roar such as has not since visited the earth reverberated 
through the country, shaking the air as violently as the 
first shock shook the earth. The world rocked to and 
fro like a vessel at sea, tumbling every man to the earth, 
and rolling him over the ground. It was impossible to 
stand, or even to lie still. The whole human race be- 
came sea sick, and all were, in addition, more frightened 
than sick. Down came the dug-outs with their contents 
over the heads of the Ammi, and men and provisions 
were rolled promiscuously over the ground. Fruits and 
nuts fell from the trees, and many trees fell with them. 
There seemed to be no safety for anything on the earth, 
or even for the earth itself. The land appeared to be 
going, and all looked for a general collapse. 

To add to the disaster the Swamp overflowed, and its 
waters rushed over the settlement of the Ammi, over- 



THE CATASTROPHE. 


97 



98 


FROM MONK.KY TO MAN. 


whelming everything except the huts that stood on high 
ground. Several of the men, and many of the women 
and children, who had escaped being scared to death, 
were finally drowned; while reptiles and wild beasts 
again overran the region of the Ammi. All Alligator 
Swamp seemed emptied upon Cocoanut Hill, and the 
infant race looked to see their country, like Holland, 
sink out of sight. 

The return of the waves was scarcely less disastrous 
than their advance. As the earth settled again, and the 
flood came down from the hills, it swept away much that 
the advance had left. The earth for a long time swayed 
back and forth, the waters rushing alternately in each 
direction. Many of the Ammi escaped only by running 
into the trees, some of whom even then were shaken 
down into the water. To add to the terror the sky be- 
came dark, the sun being entirely hid by the thick 
clouds of dust and smoke .which issued from the crevices 
of the earth. Noises were repeatedly heard as of great 
explosions, and, following every rest from the rocking of 
the earth, was a shaking up by intermittent convulsions. 
The birds did not find even the air still enough for 
flight, but many fell to the ground (or water) killed by 
the concussion. None knew when the next burst would 
occur, but all looked for their death, uncertain only 
whether it would come by fire, water, or engulfment. 
Thunder seemed to come from both the earth and sky, 
and lightnings flashed out from the rents of the earth as 
well as of the clouds. The world at times appeared to 
be on fire, and it looked as if it would be burned up in 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


99 


case it should escape all the other means of destruction. 
The sun, the moon, and the stars seemed all to be 
destroyed, and no human being looked again for light 
except from the fire of the destruction of all things. 
Death was expected to follow this disaster, in which men 
and animals alike were to take part. 

In the midst of this despair, however, hope arose with 
the stillness that came as sudden as had the commotion. 
The earth seemed again to stand. The thunderings be- 
came quiet; the waters rushed back to their places; light 
began to appear through the smoke, and in time the sun 
was seen to be in his place. The distant mountain 
ranges again appeared in sight, but much changed. 
Some peaks were gone, or lay in heaps about the ranges, 
while new ridges arose where the plain had before 
stretched. A new earth seemed to greet the sky; the old 
horizon was gone, and a new sky-line along the mount- 
ains added grandeur as well as novelty to the changed 
scene. 

For a moment the impression prevailed that the earth 
was not permanent, but changeable like the sea, the for- 
est, and the men. The globe was at this time passing 
through a crisis as decisive as that of the human race, 
preparing for our present physical •geography -as well as 
our present society; and we may be excused for turning 
aside, for a moment, from the convulsions of the human 
mind in its preparations for war, to the physical convul- 
sions of Nature in preparing the earth itself for its future 

Lore. 


uses. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


smoke, the noise, the 
fire and the water having 
cleared away, the Animi 
were now discussing the 
earth- quake. They had for- 
got their war preparations 
in the presence of a greater 
enemy than the Lali. They 
had to make peace with the 
World. What had happen- 
ed ? Will it occur again ? 
These were among the questions they asked. 

“ I do not see that we made much by coming down from 
the trees,” said one. “ The earth is just as unstable as 
the trees, and shakes as much as the3^ I should have 
been thrown off many times had there been any place to 
fall to.” 

“ Had we kept to the trees,” observed another, “we 
should have had more experience in holding on. I got 
thrown down and rolled about, because I had nothing to 
hold to. When the ground rocks it is more violent than 
a palm or a pine.” 

“It all comes,” said Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, 
“from walking upright. If the Apes had kept on all 
100 



PROM MONKRY TO MAN. 


101 


fours, they would not have been thrown to the ground. 
Nobody can stand on his hind legs alone, in such a 
shaking. While the rest of you tumbled I remained on 
my four feet. • Men need to walk solidly, and nothing 
gives a firmer foundation than four feet. No elephant is 
fool enough to walk on two; and men, by keeping two 
.of their feet in the air, are always falling. It was a 
great mistake to get up from the ground. Other animals 
have not done it. Men were made to go on all fours. 
Everything they want is on the ground, and they can see 
it better when looking down than when looking up. 
Their eyes are thus nearer what they are hunting, and 
they are not in danger of stumbling when they are look- 
ing at their feet.” 

Another thought that the horror occurred because 
they were too irreligious. They" had been neglecting 
their ceremonies, and there was general doubt about the 
traditions of Shoozoo. “It is a divine visitation,” he 
said, and he was in favor of sacrificing something. 

Another said: “It was the voice of the great winged 
Alligator, with which Shoozoo fought. Chained under 
the Swamp this beast shook himself, which caused the 
waters to flow over these regions. The fire and smoke 
which he blew from his mouth, caused all the damage. 
He swallowed up the sun and stars for awhile, and the 
mountains which he carried off he has not yet returned. 
I think we should propitiate him, or he will come 
again.” 

The fire, which some had never before seen, or only 
vaguely observed in the lightning or a distant volcano. 






THE FIGHT WITH THE FIRE MONSTER. 







f 


S7 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


103 


proved the greatest terror of all, as it was the greatest 
mystery. They saw it creeping through the grass, 
destroying scattered pieces of wood, as well as flaming 
in various parts of the forest. They thought it was a 
great serpent, and tried to kill it by throwing clubs at it, 
which it in turn devoured; when they declared that it 
was a monster that fed on wood, and ate whole forests. 
Some thought that it was the sun that had broken loose 
from the sky, and fallen in pieces to the earth; because, 
in addition to its light, they felt its heat. All were in- 
clined to worship it as a divinity,'some saying that it 
was Shoozoo himself. 

• “It is some kind of snake,” said one, “and I never 
yet saw a snake that I could not strangle;” whereat he 
seized a burning brand, which he took to be the body of 
the serpent, and tried to squeeze it. to death. He 
dropped it quickly, however, with a loud scream, saying 
that it had bit him. He then jumped on the fire, think- 
ing to crush the monster, when the sparks flew up in 
great numbers, frightening all who were present, and 
igniting the hair of the assailant, who was soon rushing 
about in flames. 

‘ ‘ There is a fight between him and the monster, ’ ’ said 
one; “let us see which will whip.” 

The man was soon burned to death and his body nearly 
consumed, at which great terror seized the rest. 

They called the monster the Sun-serpent, and for a 
long time, whenever fire appeared, they avoided it, or 
prayed to it, to avert its wrath. When it lightened they 
were afraid, and prayed that it would remain in the sky, 


104 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


and not come to the earth. They regarded the thunder 
as its voice; and when it struck a-tree or destroyed a for- 
est, they said it had come down to take a meal. In time, 
as they got more familiar with^t, they took to feeding it 
with wood, to appease its hunger, and prevent it from 
devouring them or their possessions. When it went out, 
they thought it had crawled into the earth, like any other 
snake, and rarely was anybody bold enough to try to dig 
it out, or even to approach its hole. When they saw it 
flying through the air, as in lightning or a falling star, 
they predicted some great calamity, and were exception- 
ally religious. They pointed to the man}" thunder storms 
and to the damage done by the lightning and rain as 
evidence of all this; for these disturbances were all more 
frequent and violent in the Tertiary Age than at any 
subsequent time, the air being never for a long time 
either clear or silent. 

There was, in short, so much that the early race did 
not understand, that they were perpetually in awe. 
Every convulsion of nature was a subject of worship to 
them. They thought it was alive, or produced by some 
living monster, and they feared its wrath and tried to 
appease it. Earth-quakes soon got a name, and were 
placed among the divinities. Thunder, Eightning, 
Rain, Hail, and subsequently Snow were canonized as 
heavenly spirits. The wind was the breath of Shoozoo, 
or of his great Alligator. Sunshine came to be the smile 
of the Great Serpent, when he was in good humor. The 
air came soon to be as full of monsters as the earth, and 
men’s imagination saw more than their eyes. A spirit 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


105 


world had dawned upon them, and the supernatural 
began to rule the race. All the unknown was fashioned 
into gods, and the realm of ignorance became one of ter- 
ror and devotion. 

‘ ‘ It all comes, ’ ’ persisted Gimbo, ‘ ‘ from looking up. If 
people only walked on their four feet they would not see 
the sky and its fires. I never see anything that is high, 
and so am not made afraid. The cure for all these evils 
is to return to all fours, when you won’t see anything 
that is so far off that it does not concern you.” 

“But you see more snakes, and are more frightened 
by them than we,” retorted one. 

“Snakes must be seen before you have to do with 
them,” replied Gimbo; “if they see you first you don’t 
come off so well. By keeping my eyes on the ground, I 
see them before they harm me, and soon they are out of 
the way, or I am. When your first acquaintance with a 
snake is made by tramping on him, there is a disagreea- 
ble surprise and a dangerous controversy. But it is not 
so with the Sun-serpent or the Alligator of Shoozoo, 
which you are always seeing and which never comes 
near;, so that you are always frightened when there is no 
danger. ’ ’ 

A long religious controversy then ensued, which 
turned mainly on 'whether men should keep to the ways 
and traditions of their fathers, and walk, like them, on all 
fours, or whether they should stand up and look ahead. 
The latter course was thought to unsettle their faith and 
make them introduce new gods, if not to abandon 
entirely their religion. Gimbo thought there were 


106 


F'ROM MONKEY YO MAN. 


swamp snakes enough to engage men’s attention, with- 
out troubling themselves about snakes in the air. 
“Shoozoo’s Alligator,” he said, “is a literal swamp rep- 
tile, and that is enough to worship. By introducing new 
snakes into our theology, you will confuse all our 
religion.” 

Others, however, were not as conservative as Gimbo, 
but believed in acknowledging snakes wherever they 
found them. Religion is naturally progressive, they 
thought, and advancement in religion at this time was 
believed to consist in adding more snakes to theology. 

While, therefore, Gimbo r^resented the Unitarians, or 
Mono-snakists, who claimed that there was only one 
great snake god — the Alligator of Shoozoo — there was a 
pol3^theistic, or poly-snake, party, which insisted on a 
many-snaked Pantheon, and particularly on a belief in 
the sun-snake and the wood-eating snake, which were 
thought by many to be one and the same; while still 
others thought that these, with the Alligator of Shoozoo, 
formed together a trinity of snakes which were in sub- 
stance all one, but manifested themselves under the three 
forms of Sun -light, Wood-fire and Alligator. 


CHAPTER XX. 



|HERK had up to this time 
been many sects in the reli- 
gion of the Ammi. They all 
agreed simply in recognizing 
Shoozoo as its founder, and 
his fight with the Alligator as 
the great transaction on which 
it rested. There was early, 
however, a schism in the main 
body. One class had drifted 
away from the worship of 
Shoozoo to the worship of 
his Alligator, and in time they claimed that the Alligator 
was the god, instead of Shoozoo. This came from their 
habit of using the alligator, or figures representing it, as 
symbols of the Shoozoo religion, whereby the symbol be- 
came in time more important than the thing symbolized. 
There were, accordingly, in the Shoozoo religion, the 
pure Shoozoo party and the Alligator party, and for 
nearly a generation a fierce controversy raged between 
the two, resulting often in bloodshed. 

The Alligator party, however, triumphed in the end, 
and many of the pure Shoozooists were exiled, and have 
3ince lived among the Tali and other apes, where they 

107 


108 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


have continued to worship Shoozoo without any mixture 
of the Alligator, and have converted back some of the 
Apes to their faith. 

In time, however, the Alligator party came to be 
divided among themselves, as the outgrowth of the same 
spirit. They accustomed themselves to use, as the sym- 
bol of the Alligator, a dragon-fly (for the alligator van- 
quished by Shoozoo was admitted to be a flying alligator 
which somewhat resembled a dragon-fly), and by many 
the dragon-fly came at length to be taken for the Alli- 
gator and to be worshipped as such. A fight accordingly 
arose between the pure Alligator party and the dragon- 
fly party that waxed more bitter than the original fight 
between the Alligator party and the Shoozoo party. The 
dragon-fly party were in the end victorious, and the Alli- 
gator party were slain or banished as heretics, just as the 
pure Shoozoo party had been. 

There was soon after this a like division among the 
successful Dragon-fly party, and from a like cause. The 
people, finding it difiicut to draw a dragon fly, repre- 
sented it by a cross, or two lines drawn transversely, the 
longer one representing the body of the fly, and the 
shorter one its wings. This symbol, which was soon 
seen on all the utensils of the Ammi, and frequently 
carved on trees and rocks, especially during the 
controversy with the Alligator party, came at length to 
be taken for the dragon-fly, and worshipped in its stead. 
This abuse was deplored by some of the Ammi, who tried 
to recall the people to the worship of the dragon-fly it- 
self, and not its symbol. Others, however, had become 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


109 


attached to the cross, and soon there was a violent con- 
troversy between the dragon-fly party and the cross 
party, and the dragon-fly party fought the cross party 
more than they had both together fought the Alligator 
party. The cross party were successful, however, and 
the dragon-fly party were compelled to keep quiet; for by 
this time they had learned the first rudiments of religious 
tolerance, and stopped killing and banishing the dissenters, 
provided only that they would not preach their doctrines 
in public, or attempt to disturb the established faith. 

Soon, however, the c<ross party was rent with dissen- 
sions, one class insisting on worshiping the long beam of 
the cross, and the other the short beam ; and there was 
soon the long-beam cross party and the short-beam cross 
party in the church, and the long-beam party fought the 
short-beam party more than the whole cross party had 
before fought the dragon-fly party. The short-beam 
party insisted at last on making the short beam as long as 
the long beam, forming something like a Greek Cross, 
which finally came to be their symbol, while the long- 
beam party came in time to omit the short beam alto-' 
gether and use only a one-beam cross; and they took as 
their symbol a straight line. 

The short-beam cross party, however, were successful, 
and they greatly persecuted the long-beam party, though 
with less severity than their predecessors had done, be- 
cause the spirit of religious liberty was always in the 
ascendant. 

The short-beam cross party, however, soon broke up 
into other sects owing to disputes about the nature and 


no 


* FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


form of the short-beam cross, which gave the long-beam 
cross party (which had at length become the one-beam 
cross party) an opportunity to urge its claims, and there 
was a reaction among the short-beam cross party in favor 
of the long-beam cross party, which gained many con- 
verts, and at onetime threatened the disruption of the 
short-beam cross party; and it would doubtless have 
accomplished this but for a great reformation which now 
swept over the religious world of the Ammi. 

This was a movement in favor of restoring the primi- 
tive religion of Shoozoo, or the worship of the Alligator. 
It was led by one Tookoo, who was afterwards known as 
the Great Reformer. With a fiery zeal and vigorous 
eloquence he called the attention of the Ammi to the 
fact they had got away entirely from their original faith, 
which was in the Alligator, and, instead, were worship- 
ping short crosses and long crosses. 

“Neither short crosses nor long crosses,” said he, “are 
anything, but only alligators. Not even a dragon-fly will 
avail you, but only the original Alligator of Shoozoo, 
who occupies the Swamp and flies through the air. He 
gives us warmth in the sun, and comes to the earth in 
lightning to punish his enemies. He is the lyord of the 
Ammi, and will put to flight the Lali and all monkeys 
beyond the Swamp. He led our fathers out from the 
Apes, gave us Cocoanut Hill, taught us to make darts 
and wedges, and led us to build houses. Our gathered 
fruits are due to his guidance, and by his jaws the rep- 
tiles of the great forest are kept in fear. Return, then, 
to your allegiance to the great Alligator, the companion 
of Shoozoo and equal deity with him.” 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Ill 


• Lookoo gained many adherents, not only because it 
was evident to all the Ammi that they had departed from 
their god for his successlive symbols, but because the 
priests of the short-beam cross religion had established 
the custom of drinking all the milk in the Cocoanut, 
which they had taught the rest of the Ammi that it was 
sacrilege for anybody to drink but the priests. The 
reformation, accordingly, gained headway out of a desire 
on the part of the common people to get some of this 
milk, as well as out of a change in theological convic- 
tions. There was a general demand for reform, and 
some of the worst, as well as some of the best men, were 
active in the movement. The priests made the principal 
opposition to it, although a few of them, in the hope of 
preferment, or because they had a grievance against the 
other priests, joined the new movement and became its 
leaders. 

The reformation was, generally successful Some, how- 
ever, refused to be led away by it, but became more de- 
voted than ever to the short-beam cross worship, and 
cultivated such a devotion for the short-beam cross as had 
never been known. They were commonly known as 
the clerical or priestly party, and constituted the conserv- 
atives until the time of the great earthquake just men- 
tioned. They insisted on retaining all that their 
ancestors had handed down to them, the very fact that 
it had come from antiquity being evidence of its truth; 
while the Reformers claimed the right of going back to 
original sources and re establishing themselves on the 
truth of the great Alligator. 


112 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


The tendency to skepticism and the introduction of. 
new gods, deplored by Tookoo, as well as the explana- 
tion of the Alligator and other theological truths as 
phenomena of nature — fire, earthquake, wind, etc. — has 
generally been found among the Reformers, who early 
tried to explain all religion away, or else resolve it into 
natural causes and effects. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


MONO the Lali the religion 
of Shoozoo was preserved 
in greater purity. There 
had not been such a great 
departure from Shoozoo 
himself, as among the Am- 
mi, where he was entirely 
lost in his symbols. Neither 
had there been so many 
splits and reformations. 
The Apes preserved the 
unity of the church better than the Men. ^ 

Instead, however, of losing Shoozoo in the Alligator, 
like the Ammi, and then losing the Alligator in the 
dragon-fly, and the dragon-fly in the cross, and the cross 
in the short beam of the cross, the Tali went to the 
opposite extreme of deifying and worshiping not only 
Shoozoo, but everything connected with him. Before 
one generation had passed Shoozoo ’s wife, Simlee, was 
admitted to equal divinity with him, and it was known 
as the Shoozoo-Simlee religion. There was thus a male 
aiid female deity, or king and queen of heaven. Soon 
after this Shoozoo’ s parents and children were likewise 
added to the divine family, and worshiped by the Apes. 



113 


114 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Next came the dart with which Shoozoo struck the 
moon, and finally the moon itself. 

Everything was deemed sacred with which Shoozoo 
had to do, except the Alligator, which the Apes per- 
sistently refused to worship, because the Ammi had 
taken it up. They claimed, instead, that Shoozoo had 
killed the alligator in order to take the swallowed moon 
out of it. Many relics of the dead alligator, indeed, 
were furnished, and kept as a perpetual testimony to the 
achievements of Shoozoo, and as a rebuke to the un- 
believing Ammi, who dared to worship it. These relics 
were worn as charms, and many cures were alleged to 
have been effected by them. Among others the gallant 
Oboo had been cured of a violent disease. The Swamp 
in which the Alligator was killed was deemed sacred, 
and in their devotions the Tali turned their faces to it. 
Water from this Swamp was likewise deemed sacred, 
and was always kept on the altars of the Apes, and great 
devotion was paid to it when exposed to the sight of the, 
worshippers. Forty apes were once killed for sacrilege 
committed by spilling water, most of them for being 
mere witnesses of the outrage. A drop of Swamp water 
was put on every Ape’s head when he was born, and the 
ceremony was often repeated through life. This water 
was used in the consecration of their priests, and its 
application once turned the scales of war. Its appear- 
ance was consulted for omens, and it was invoked by 
monkeys when about to go after fruits. Bad luck was 
attributed to certain disturbances of it. Water-songs 
were the first specimens of music known to the Apes, 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


115 


and were always sung at exhibitions of water taken from 
the Swamp. The finest gourds and cocoanut vessels 
were made to hold this water, and the decoration of these 
was the first step taken in Sacred Art. Among the first 
pictures sketched were crude representations of a stream. 
They called their children after this water, such being 
the meaning of*the common names among them. “Ho” 
signifies ‘ ‘ touched with water, ’ ’ and ‘ ‘ Oboo ’ ’ means 
“Soaked.” Rainy days were deemed more sacred than 
clear ones, on account of their water, whose descent 
from the skies was taken as influences from Shoozoo. 
A flood was regarded as this god coming in disguise ; _ 
and to be drowned was to be lost in Shoozoo. The. Tali 
washed oftener than the Ammi, not for cleanliness, but 
on account of their devotion to water ; and they would 
not kill a snake that was still wet. As long as anything, 
indeed, had upon it water from the great Swamp, it was 
supposed to be under the protection of Shoozoo. The 
Apes drank water before eating, and the last thing they 
did when dying was to drink. To be deprived of water 
for certain rites was the most serious affliction that could 
happen to an Ape, and a rebellion once broke out among- 
the Tali because, when on a long march, their leader 
would not go out of the way to find a stream for cere- 
monial purposes. 

But the refinements of ritual among the Tali were not 
confined to water, although at the time of which we 
speak the water rites had attained their greatest ascend- 
ancy. The Apes were accustomed to make pilgrimages 
to Cocoanut Hill where Shoozoo performed his great 


116 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


exploits, which was regarded as Holy Ground, and there 
they 'often worshipped. It was the interference of the 
Ammi with these privileges that led to the quarrels 
between the Apes and the Men, of which we have 
spoken. The Ammi, however, claimed that the Apes 
came not for religious purposes, but to steal cocoanuts, 
and hence the reprisals already mentioned. 

. One of the rules of the Tali religion was to kill . 
screech owls when the moon was quarter full, because it 
was at this period that Shoozoo had killed the owls of 
Cocoanut Hill, and all owl hunts were in commemoration 
of his great exploit. Another was to hide their darts 
for six days after this festival, because during this time 
Shoozoo rested from his hunt and needed no more owls. 
Another observance was to present snakes to one another 
at a certain period in honor of the great serpent which 
Shoozoo killed and presented to Simlee. For days 
before this festival the young monkeys were kept busy 
hunting snakes in the great Swamp. Another require- 
ment was that on the day before Owl-hunt the Tali 
should walk up-right as a preparation for the great festi- 
val, since on this day Shoozoo walked upright to aim at 
the moon. They were forbidden to take fish from the 
great Swamp on Snake Day, though they might then 
take them- from other waters. No monkey must kill 
another during these festivals, as this right was reserved 
to the priests alone, who must, however, use their vic- 
tims only in sacrifice. 

Departure from these rules was punished -by being 
plunged in the Great Swamp to wash away the guilt. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


117 


The sinner was kept under as long as the celebrant 
deemed fit; and if he survived he was said to be recon- 
ciled to Shoozoo, and if not he was deemed incapable of 
purification and deservedly dead. There were other 
penalties for small offenders. Most of the offences 
among the Tali were religious violations, and the punish- 
ment was in the hands of the priesfs, which had much 
to do with the preservation of the unity of religion. Sin 
was recognized before wrong, nonconformity before crime, 
and ecclesiastical penalties before civil. Frequent at- 
tempts were made to throw off the tyranny of the priest- 
hood, but the leaders of the revolt were quickly appre- 
hended, and usually put to death with great tortures. 
Heresies were not infrequent among the Apes, who soon 
learned, however, that it was not policy to make them 
known. In general there was a remarkable unanimity 
among them — a greater degree than has since been known 
in religious affairs. 

Among the maxims of the Tali, which were also cur- 
rent among the Ammi, (for, notwithstanding their relig- 
ious differences, their morality was substantially the 
same), were the following : 

Keep your snout in your own cocoanut. 

Never bite off an ear in sport. 

Stick to the tree you are climbing. 

Don’t fight over what you don’t want. 

Save what you can’t eat, remembering that you must 
eat again. 

Don’t crack your cocoanuts on each other’s heads. 


118 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Half the time spent in washing that you spend in 
scratching would keep you more comfortable. 

Don’t man the Ammi, (which among the Ammi reads, 
“Don’t ape the L?ili.”) 

Get up a tree rather than dispute the ground with a 
tiger. 

# 

If you don’t pick your neighbor’s fleas you wdll be bit 
by your own fleas. 

After this digression oi:^ the religion and -morality of 
the Dali, we will return to the affairs of the Ammi. 


CHAPTER XXIL 


AVING repaired the damage 
of the earthquake and flood, 
the Ammi set out on their 
march to the country of the 
Lali, having, first, however, 
armed themselves with the 
light weapons and provisions 
already mentioned. The ex- 
pedition was led by Koree, 
who labored hard to remove 
every obstacle, and he set an 
example of endurance, as well as infused courage in the 
irresolute. 

“We start out for Sosee and glory,” he said. “The 
time will come when we will delight to recall the difii- 
culties which now trouble us.” 

They marched more around the Swamp than through 
it, keeping, however, near its borders. This was a 
longer route, but fraught with less danger and difiiculty. 
At night they retired to the Swamp, lest they should be 
surprised by the Lali, and when they became hungry 
they scattered to collect food, of which there was great 
abundance. The earthquake shock and the floods had 
shaken the fruits and nuts from the trees, where they 
could now readily be gathered. 

119 



120 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


Oko, the greedy fellow mentioned, suggested that they 
collect stores for *the whole campaign, and take them 
along, since they might not find fruits so abundant as 
they proceeded. “There is plenty in the Swamp,” re- 
plied Koree, who had recently passed that way. ‘ ‘ The 



THF GRKFDY OKO. 


whole region between the Ammi and the Tali abounds 
with things to eat. Tet us not, therefore, burden our- 
selves with what we may gather as we need it.” 

Determined, therefore, to forage as they went, and so 
to live at the expense of beasts and reptiles, they pro- 
ceeded on their march for several days almost un inter- 


FROM MONKRY TO MAN. 


121 


rupted. They moved slowly, planning the details of their 
campaign as they went. 

Among those who took part in this expedition, and 
were prominent in the counsels and events that followed, 
were these: 

First was Cocoanut Scooper, the great hunter of the 
hills, who, if not fierce in battle with wild beasts, was no 
less esteemed because of his services in procuring pro- 
visions. He had scoured all the country round about, 
and knew every tree and the quality of its fruit. He 
could at a distance distinguish a palm, a walnut, a fig 
and a cinnamon tree; from the appearance of a region he 
knew its value as a source of supplies; he was expert in 
finding thickets where rabbits and other game abounded, 
and he learned all the shoals of the Swamp where crabs 
and clams could be taken. This man had charge of the 
commissaries, and looked out for provisions for the expe- 
dition. During all their march his eye was on the 
foliage of the forest, rather than on the trail of the 
Apes, looking for something to eat rather than to fight. 

Next was Fire-tamer, the bright-eyed hunter who took 
prisoner the red- winged beast that feeds on wood, and, 
having caught him in his lightning errand to earth, kept 
him a captive in the camp of the Ammi, feeding him on 
brush and bark, and confining him within an earthen 
mound. The all-devouring monster could not be 
satiated, but, after consuming all the wood they could 
carry him, died when they stopped feeding him. 

Next in valor and wise in counsel was Spread-mouth, 
the first man that was known to laugh. His associates 


122 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


observed the changing size oi his mouth, which took as 
many dimensions as the chameleon took colors, and was 
seen to be biggest when he was with women. Others 
learned to imitate him, which was at first thought to de- 
tract, and then to add, to their beauty, until, at the time' 
of which we speak, half of the Ammi had learned to 
laugh, but many of them awkwardly. The first laughs 
of men were hardly distinguishable from grins and 
growls, and many indulged in them unwillingly because 
of the huge teeth they displayed, which called 
forth shudders rather than responsive smiles. They who 
laughed, laughed alone, and not for many generations did 
a whole company join in laughter together. As there 
was little wit to encourage laughter, the habit was of 
slow growth, and its indulgence promoted quarreling 
rather than good humor, because of the defiant appear- 
ance of the laugher. Only when men became ac- 
quainted with laughter did they learn to like it, and not 
to resent it. This great Spread -mouth was, therefore, 
long the terror and the puzzle of the Ammi. 

Next in honor and influence was the great -jawed and 
big-fisted Pounder, whose mouth and hands were a 
double terror to his enemies. He scorned to fight with 
clubs or sharpened stones, but thought himself sufficienfly 
armed by nature to meet his enemy, whether man, or 
ape, or wild beast. He had fought the woolly Rhinoce 
ros and Cave Bear; he had climbed after wild cats, and 
fought in the Swamp with alligators. Pounder had a 
long, narrow head, with retreating forehead, and great 
jaws filled with oblique teeth, which struck terror into 


FROM MONKEY ITO MAN. • 


123 


an enemy. He was woolly-haired, being covered with 
coarse, dark-brown bunches of hair over his whole body, 
and a beard of lighter color. His arms were long, 
reaching almost to. the ground, so that he could walk as 
well as fight with them, using sometimes one and some- 
times both. They were powerful, whether to hold an 
object or deal a blow. His legs were short and thin, 
with undeveloped calves, and he walked half erect with 
in-bent knees, carrying a huge body that was ever ready 
for assault. He was impatient to reach the enemy, and 
at times quarreled with his friends that he might have 
somebody to fight. Pounder was more useful in war than 
in peace; and had not this conflict broken out to make 
him a hero, he would have been killed as a criminal. 

A very different man from this, one shrewd in counsel 
and valiant in war, was Abroo, known also as Family- 
Man. He had kept to one woman for years, and kept 
together the children born to them, so that they consti- 
tuted a family. The children of his children were also 
recognized, and they, with his other relatives were bound 
together in a kind of clan. He favored this group, and 
sought to gain every advantage for it from the other men. 
They kept their fruits together, and lived in common. 
A few others were, indeed, admitted to their number, 
and all together they formed a ‘ ‘ set, ’ ’ and the social dis- 
tinction thus made was the foundation of caste. Abroo 
was the leader, or patriarch, of this group, and all its 
members adherred together in time of dispute. He acted 
for them all, which was the beginning of representative 
government. He considered more what was to their 


124 


^ROM MONKRY TO MAN. 


advantage than what was to the advantage of the whole 
people; and many issues turned on whether the Abroo- 
ides or the rest of the Ammi should control. The ad- 
herents of Abroo formed a kind of aristocracy. The5'' 
were high-minded, and, by general consent, deemed bet- 
ter than the average man. Abroo had a great contempt 
for Pounder, and in a recent quarrel would have been 
killed by the latter, had not his clansmen interfered to 
save him. Abroo proposed that they fight by clans, say- 
ing that he would lead his own hosts; but the suggestion 
did not prevail, as most of the Ammi were not grouped 
in families, and did not even know their relations. 
Abroo, however, persisted in keeping his party together 
in war, as in peace, and in directing their movements. 

There were many other valiant men who went up in 
this march, and some women. Among the latter was 
Watch- the-girls, who protected females from the embraces 
of the stronger sex. She beat Spread- Mouth almost to 
death for trying one of his smiles on a young girl in the 
woods, and pulled bunches of hair out of his back. 
She scratched an eye out of Goat-strut for his persistent 
attentions to unwilling females, and even Pounder was 
afraid of her, not that she could vanquish him in fight, 
but because other men generally assisted her in a fight 
against a lascivious lover. She went fearlessly to war, 
and led many women and young girls to battle. For, as 
yet, both sexes fought, and not the male -only; and 
Watch-fhe-girls had more followers than Abroo. 

Such were the hosts that went up against the Tali. 
They numbered two thousand, although subsequent 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


125 


accounts placed them at many times this number. They 
were less numerous, however, than the Lali; but owing 
to their greater skill and to their arms, they hoped to 
overcome larger numbers. 


CHAPTER XXIIL 


the fourth day of their 
march the Atnmi came to 
a body of water, which 
threatened to turn them 
back and defeat their ex- 
pedition. The great earth- 
quake, in tilting the count- 
ry, had caused the Swamp 
to overflow, and cover a 
great part of the dry land. 
There was a large lake 
formed in this way, which was connected with the Swamp 
by a strait, or narrow neck of water. It was necessary 
for the Ammi to cross this strait, or else go round the 
new lake. 

“This lake was not here when I‘ passed thjs way be- 
fore,” said Koree, “so that it cannot be deep. Let us, 
therefore, go through it, for we can easily wade.” 

He thereupon marched in, leading the way for the 
hosts of mankind to follow. He was soon, however, be- 
yond his depth, and ordered a retreat. 

“We have not struck the right path,” he said; “let us 
cross farther away from the Swamp.” 

He accordingly made a second attempt, but with no 
better result. The water was everywhere too deep to ford. 

126 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


127 


“I think,” said another, “that we had better go round. 
If the lake is a new one .it cannot be large. ’ ’ 

“If the water is so deep,” replied a third, “it must 
extend far into the country. I think we had better go 
through the Swamp.” 

‘ ‘ There appears, ’ ’ said still another, ‘ ‘ to be more water 
in the Swamp than anywhere else. I wonder where all 
this water comes from.” 

‘ ‘ To settle the matter, ’ ’ said Cocoanut-scooper, ‘ ‘ I will 
climb this palm tree. From its top I can see the end of 
the lake if it is small.” 

Suiting his action to his words he bounded up the tree, 
which was an easy matter for one who had climbed .so 
many in prospecting for fruit. , 

“There is no end of the water,” he said, on returning. 
‘ ‘ The Swamp is flooded and the new lake extends far 
out of sight.” 

“ There is then nothing to do,” said Koree, “ but to 
cross it. So let us spread out, and each hunt for a shal- 
low place.” 

“We might,” observed another, “wait till the water 
subsides.” 

“Or,” said Oko, “we could go back and give up the 
war. If the country is flooded eyerything be3^ond is 
destroyed, and we will make nothing by conquering the 
Tali, who have no doubt been washed out with all their 
provisions. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ There is plenty of fruit beyond, ’ ’ said Cocoanut- 
Scooper, ‘ ‘ I observed that before coming down from the 
palm. We shall have a prosperous march if we only get 
over this water.” 


128 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


The great flood, however, rolled, like Jordan, between 
them and the promised land ; and no power, human or 
apian, had y^t crossed such a stream. 

A few limbs and , trunks of trees were floating in the 
water, which suggested an idea to Koree. 

“If we could each get on one of these pieces of float- 
ing wood,” he said, “we might get over the water ; for 
the wind is driving them in that direction.” 

‘‘ Good,” said Pounder, “ and I will be the first to try 
it. I can handle a wild beast or an alligator, and so need 
not fear a log.” 

So he rushed into the water and siezed the trunk of a 
dead tree floating near, and was soon astride it drifting 
toward the other shore. 

Others followed his example, and soon the river was 
full of warriors, each trying to mount a log and sail 
across the lake. Some of the limbs, however, were too 
small to bear their weight, and had to be abandoned. 
Others were of awkward shape and would not remain 
long in the same position, and so could not be controlled. 
Several, however, mounted successfully, and expected 
soon to reach the opposite shore. Pounder was in the 
lead, and beckoned the rest to follow him. 

But there were not logs enough to supply all, so that 
not many followed him, and some began to disparage 
this means of crossing. 

“Come on,” cried Pounder. “If you are afraid of 
the water, how do you expect to meet the enemy ? ” 

“Come back,” replied Koree, “till we can all provide 
ourselves with logs, or else find other means of crossing. ’ ’ 



130 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“ I will not come back,” he said ; “you are cowards, 
and when I get on the other side I will ” — 

Just then his log turned, and the great Pounder was 
seen with his feet in the air, kicking at the sun. Down 
he went head first into the water and out of sight. 
Soon, however, he reappeared, and after spitting out a 
mouthful of water, and shaking his locks, tried to regain 
his log. But he could not raise himself for awhile, and 
when at last he succeeded in remounting the log it 
turned again and buried him a second time out of sight. 

‘ ‘ I would rather have hold of an alligator than of this 
thing,” he said, as he came up spitting and shivering. 

Finding, however, that he could not mount the log 
securely, he abandoned it, and swam back to the shore ; 
and all the rest who had not been thrown from their logs 
followed his example, lest they should meet a like 
disaster. 

But the experiment was not lost, and the fruitless 
attempt to cross in this way suggested several improve- 
ments in navigation. 

“ Some logs float better than others, ” observed Koree ; 
and there was a long discussion about how to trim and 
hew them so as to make them hold a man. Many 
experiments were made. They used their stone wedges 
and bear’s teeth to hollow them into shape. This work 
continued for days, and as a result of their consultations 
and efforts, a crude canoe, or boat was formed, but not 
till after many failures to make it hold its contents. The 
first success was accomplished by Duco who managed, 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


131 


I 

after many dangers, to cross the lake in a vessel of his 
own construction. 

There was now an ambition in every one to construct 
a boat, and they almost forgot the war in their enthu- 
siasm for this new industry. The art of ship-building 
was thus begun, and a navy put in process of construc- 


tion. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


Bean never at this rate,” said 
Koree, ‘ ‘ construct boats 
enough to cross this water. 
We have already toiled 
many days and only one 
man has yet crossed and 
returned.” 

“Even if we could get 
our boats ready,” replied 
Pounder, ‘ ‘ we could not 
rely on them to carry us 
safely across. Duco waited long for a good wind, and 
when it came it blowed him in many directions before 
landing him on the opposite shore. If we entered such 
vessels, we would be scattered and lost.” 

“Bet us go back,” said Oko, “ or we will lose all.” 

Koree at this moment observed that several of the logs 
had floated together, and were being driven about in a 
cluster. The boys were amusing themselves by jumping 
from one to another, and all were being carried along by 
the flood. 

“If we could fasten those logs together,” he said, 

‘ ‘ they would hold many of us, and by making several 
such collections we could all get across.” 

132 



IJ'ROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


133 


This was a new idea which was immediately acted upon 
by the Ammi. It did not take our early ancestors long 
to adopt a suggestion or introduce an improvement. 
From the thought to the act was only a step, and, though 
most steps were failures, they made so many that occas- 
ionally they achieved a success. 

“ Collect all the logs,” he said, “and get willows and 
bark to fasten them together. ’ ’ 

They were, therefore, soon busy collecting the logs 
that were in the water, and rolling others from the land 
with their clubs, which they used as levers, thus learn- 
ing incidentally an important mechanical principle. 
With their hatchets of flint they chopped off branches, 
shaped the timber into the desired form, and even felled 
trees for their bark or trunks. It was obvious that a raft 
would soon be constructed and set afloat. 

They had shortly before built in a similar manner a 
small bridge near their dwellings to enable them to cross 
to a dry point in the Swamp ; and, seeing a flood carry it 
away, (when it floated on the water), they were not 
wholly unprepared to see this new raft also float. 

“ If one log floats why will not more? ” asked Koree. 

“If our bridge floated away, this also will do so,” 
replied another ; and they thenceforth called it the ‘ ‘float- 
ing bridge.” 

The raft was soon finished, and a large number of men 
and women at once rushed upon it, so many, indeed, that 
it began to sink. 

This was looked upon as a failure, and the disappoint- 
ment of the whole human race was no less than when 
Fulton’s first steamer failed to move. 


134 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


‘ ‘ The thing will not float, ’ ’ observed Oko. 

“ It floated,” replied Duko, “until we all got upon it. 
If some would get off it would float again. ’ ’ 

“But we must all cross over, or none,” replied Abroo, 
the Family-man. 

“ Tet us build more rafts,” interposed Koree, “and in 
several of them we can all cross. ’ ’ 

“Instead of this,” said Abroo, the Family-man, “let 
part of our hosts cross at once, when this structure can 
be brought back for the others cross. I and my party 
will cross first. ’ ’ 

This was agreed to, except that, instead of Abroo and 
his clan, Duco was chosen to take charge of the first load. 

The next difficulty was in getting the raft started. It 
lay motionless with its load. 

“Wait till the wind rises,” said Koree. 

Presently a gust struck them, but it had no effect in 
starting them. 

“ lyct us push the thing with our clubs,” said Duco, 
at which all applied themselves vigorously. 

The raft was easily moved in this way, and continued 
to go as long as they could reach bottom ; but in deep 
water it stood still, or floated at the mercy of the waves. 
Pounder tried to move it by sitting on one log and push- 
ing with his feet against another. Others beat the water, 
which had a little effect. Duco then discovered that by 
by pushing in the opposite direction against the water 
they could make it move ; and soon they were paddling 
in the modern fashion. During much of the way the 
water was shallow enough to permit them to use their 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


135 


clubs as poles, or, to get out and push ; so that they were 
soon far out from land and going in the right direction. 

They would now have reached the opposite shore but 
for Pounder, who kept pushing in the way just described 
thinking he was forcing along the raft. By reason of his 
vigorous eifforts he snapped the bands which held the logs 
together. The raft broke in pieces nnd he was the first 
to fall through into the water. He went down between 
the logs which he was pushing apart. Others fell into 
the water with him, but most remained on one part or 
other of the raft ; for it broke into nearly equal parts. 
Pounder floundered awhile in the water ; but, being 
accustomed to that, through his previous plunges from 
the log, he soon got hold of one of the rafts and lifted 
himself out of the water. 

• “These things can’t be depended on,” he said, as he 
regained his place on board. 

They had now two rafts instead of one, and they 
pushed and paddled on each. Pounder, instead of sitting 
on one log and pushing against another, next took a seat 
on one log and pushed with his feet against a knot on 
the same log, and believed he was rendering the principal 
aid in propelling the raft. 

It was easier to proceed with two small rafts than one 
large one, and accordingly both were soon landed on the 
opposite shore, but not till several of the passengers had 
fallen overboard and the craft had been badly damaged. 

This was the first water voyage made by the human 
race. After repairing their vessels they returned and 
brought over the remaining hosts, but not without simi- 


136 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


lar mishaps. Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, fell, with 
others, into the water, and was nearly drowned. Only 
by standing on tiptoes could he keep his head above 
water until he was rescued, when he made the following 
observation : 

The water is the only place where it is better to walk 
on two feet than on four.” 

Having now crossed the lake it was proposed by Oko 
that they keep the rafts. “We spent too much work on 
them,” he said, “ to throw them away.’*^ 

“We cannot take them with us,” replied Koree. 

“We may want them when we return,” interposed 
Duco ; “so let us fasten them where we can find them.”. 

“ And let us leave somebody here to watch them,” said 
Oko, apprehensive lest some of their property should be 
lost. 

Like the ships of the Greeks on the coast of Troy 
these rafts were, accordingly, made fast, so that they 
should be ready for the return voyage of the warriors at 
the close of the war. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


HE Ammi now continued their 
forward march with but little 
interruption. 

“I fear this expedition will 
end in disaster,” said Gimbo; 
“our falling into the water is 
a bad sign.” 

“I think so to,” added 
Pounder, recalling his duck- 
ings; “but before it ends I 
shall have a fight with the 
Apes, and smash some of their jaws.” 

“What looks to me worst,” said another, “is, that 
when I was sharpening my flint this morning, the Fire- 
monster suddenly appeared to me, starting up out of the 
flint and immediately disappearing again.” 

‘ ‘I saw the same thing, ’ ’ added another, ‘ ‘when Pounder 
struck me in the eye. Fire flew in all directions and then 
disappeared.” 

One of the scouts now returned breathless announcing 
that they could see the Eali in the distance. 

‘ ‘Eet me reconnoiter, ’ ’ said Koree, who advanced rapidly 
to the farther edge of the swamp, from which, indeed, the 
Apes could be distinctly seen. 

137 



138 


PROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


These were running up and down the trees, apparently 
gathering fruit, and chasing one another over the plains 
without any apparent purpose except sport. But men 
never knew the deep designs of Monkeys. 

‘ ‘ Where is Sosee, I wonder ? ’ ’ asked Koree, who was 
too much interested in the object of his love to attend 
closely to the requirements of war. He did not observe 
that at that moment a great ape was stealthily approaching 
him from one side. 

For the Apes had out their pickets as well as the men, 
owing to apprehensions of an attack ; while others were t 
scattered through the Swamp hunting food. 

After a little waiting and looking he thought he descried 
Sosee in the distance walking with a handsome ape who 
was exceedingly attentive to her. 

Jealousy now succeeded to prudence, and his rage would 
have at once carried him alone into the ranks of the enemy 
to captuie her (and be captured instead), but, another 
incident prevented him from accomplishing this disaster. 

“ I will have her at once,” he said, ” and scatter the 
brains of that monkey attendant over any one who opposes 
me.” 

At this instant the ape who was watching him ran up 
and dealt him a powerful blow, knocking his resolution, 
his jealousy and his love out of him for a while. 

Koree, recovering his senses, now transferred his rage 
to this new quarter, and, following it up with blows, soon 
brought to the ground his assailant. 

This was witnessed by other scouts of the Tali who ran 
to the rescue of their companion, and also by some scouts 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


139 


of the Ammi who closed on the combatants, so that an 
immediate fight was threatened between the pickets of 
the two forces. 

This encounter, all unpremeditated, nearly defeated the 
schemes of both parties. It destroyed the hope of secrecy 
on the part of the Ammi, who thought to take the Tali 



'THE BATTEE BEGINS. 

by surprise ; and destroyed the hope of ambush on the 
part of the Tali who meant to entrap the approaching 
enemy in the Swamp. Each party, moreover, being 
ignorant of the force by which it was attacked, and fear- 
ing that it might be larger than its own, shrank from fight. 


140 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


As soon, therefore, as they got released from each other, 
they flew apart, as if they had been fighting to escape, 
and not to conquer. Both being afraid, and not daring to 
seem so, they affected to despise each other, and sc, show- 
ing their teeth and grinning a defiance, they went in 
opposite directions, each hoping the other would take the 
encounter for a chance meeting of strange apes hunting 
for food, and not a skirmish between the advance guards 
of mighty hosts prepared for battle. 

It was too late, however. Both powers were now 
apprised of each others’ designs, and both immediately 
put themselves in readiness for action. 

Koree was much blamed by the Ammi for his rashness 
in precipitating this encounter. 

“ It was your love,” said Abroo, “which brought us 
here to fight, and it is your love which will now defeat us. 
O that love would take sense along with it when it goes 
either to woo a woman or fight a battle.” 

‘ ‘ But it generally turns to foolishness before it accom- 
plishes anything,” added Cocoanut-Scooper. 

“And were there not a fool also on the other side it 
would never succeed at all,” said Oko. 

“ Koree’ s case,” added a fourth, “makes more trouble 
for others than pleasure for himself.” 

“ For his falling in love once,” said Pounder, “ I fell 
in the water twice.” 

And so they went on reproaching poor Koree for having 
such a strong love that it would not let them rest, and 
such a foolish one that it would not let them fight. 


I^ROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


141 


ICoree had nothing to say, but being himself most con- 
vinced of his own foolishness, was angry that others agreed 
with him, and so simply changed the subject. 

“ Be ready to fight at once,” he said, ” as we may be 
attacked before we have time to decide whether we will 
fight or not. Between the lake and the Apes we have 
nothing left but to triumph,” 

“It is either to be killed by the Apes or drowned in the 
water,” said Oko, “ and I don’t like either.” 

“ We’ll kill some apes before we are killed ourselves,” 
answered Pounder ; “at least, I will.” 

“ Their forces are more numerous than ours,” insisted 
Oko. 

“ That being so,” said Koree, who turned every objec- 
tion into a new device, “ we will fight them by stealth, 
creeping upon them by night, or enticing them into the 
woods.” 

“ Let us rather,” said Duco, “ attack them openly, and 
all at once ; though we are less numerous we are armed, 
and have more skill than they. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I think, ’ ’ said Gimbo, ‘ ‘ that the Apes will triumph ; 
they walk on all fours, and people can fight better with 
four feet than with two ; besides, it is not right to — ” 

‘ - Be still, ’ ’ said Koree, ‘ ‘ or give us your help, instead 
of your fears.” 

It was resolved at last, as they could neither retreat 
nor stand still, to go forward ; and they determined to 
await an opportunity to"^make an assault. 

And now dread Terror brooded over the hosts of men, 
causing hearts to flutter and visions of death to rush on 


142 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


the soul. Night and Blood and Pain visited many in 
dreams, while to some Glory appeared, walking over a 
vanquished foe. As Koree slept he thought he saw Sosee 
coming to him in beauty with a branch of evergreen oak, 
and promise that he should rule over a new race, while 
she should sit by his side as queen to receive the admira- 
tion of all men. 

The Apes also quaked, and the convulsions which had 
just thrown up the Alps were trifling compared with the 
tremors that shook the breasts of the embattled hosts that 
night. The morrow was to witness a conflict that would 
decide whether the human race was to remain on earth or 
go out of history in its infancy. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


URORA now appeared in the 
east starting the sleepers 
from their dreams, and ad- 
vanced so bright that the 
terrified Ammi thought the 
Fire-monster had seized the 
sky, and was spreading his 
wings over the whole world, 
portending death to mortals. 
First she tinted the new-born 
Alps with gold, then chased 
the mists from the valleys, and at last spread the whole 
earth with day. The courage of the hosts now returned, 
which had left them during the reign of the night-mon- 
sters in their dreams. 

With the coming of the light the Ammi marched 
boldly up to the Tali, while the latter, thrown first into 
confusion, ran about in a panic, and then, gathering 
themselves into a body, offered defiance to the intruders. 

As when a storm, rushing from the north, suddenly 
strikes the sea, rolling the waves in mountain ridges 
along the main, which again, breaking, rush back and 
fall like cliffs into the deep, stirring the great cauldron of 
waters to its bottom, and then spread out again into a 

143 



144 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


calm, so the Apes, mightily stirred at the approach of 
stern War, and driven by their fears, rushed hither and 
thither over the plain, mounting the trees and scattering 
to places of safety, and then, as the storm of terror 
passed on its way regained composure and settled down 
on the field of battle ready for action. 

First advanced from the ranks of the Ammi the mighty 
pounder, impatient for battle, and, surveying the plain 
which lay between the Men and the Apes, he grinned a 
challenge to the whole Lali. 

Him seeing from afar the mighty Scratch-for-Fleas, 
starting up from the hosts of the Lali and shaking him- 
self, (at which the earth trembled as when Jupiter shook 
Olympus with a nod), advanced to him, saying : 

“For what purpose come you to the shores of the 
Fali? Have the cocoanuts failed beyond the Swamp, 
or do you come for our women ? We will defend our 
own, be they cocoanuts or girls. Go back, or taste the 
wrath of the Monkeys.” 

Him answering with a grin, the fierce Pounder showed 
his teeth. His great lips parted, like the swinging gates 
of Babylon, bringing to view huge rows of marble-like 
columns that lined, like palisades, a deep, dark gorge. 

A like mouth opened on the other side ; and Scratch- 
for-Fleas, looking now to the east and now to the west, 
advanced, first on four feet and then on two. Next he 
moved sidewise, and, at last, for a moment, stood still, 
moving however in contemplation his great features, 
which, following his thoughts, changed fast in shape and 
color like clouds in a mountain storm. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 145 

‘ ‘ Do you come for the maiden of Ilo ? ’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘You 
will return without her. Give back your stolen fruits and 
women, and we may make peace before war begins.” 

Pounder thereupon, without answering, rushed for 
Scratch-for-Fleas, being better fitted for war than for 
diplomacy. 

Scratch-for-Fleas, fearing the mighty assault, retreated 
to the hosts of the Dali, unwilling to fight so great a 
champion ; and thereupon a loud shout went up from 
the Ammi at their bloodless victory. Pounder, however, 
was disappointed, for he loved fighting better than con- 
quering. 

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, he who had been 
reared on the slopes of Wildcat Mountain, went out from 
the hosts of the Lali bearing a cocoanut in his hand. 

Him seeing, the avaricious Oko, not knowing whether 
it was a weapon or a truce-signal, went forth to meet, 
saying, 

” Do you mean war or cocoanuts ? If you mean cocoa- 
nuts, produce enough and we may give up the fight.” 

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, true-aiming, 
threw and struck him, and the cocoanut rolled to the 
ground on one side, and Oko on the other. Picking up 
himself and then the cocoanut, Oko thereupon retired to 
the ranks of the Ammi bearing with him his defeat and 
his booty. 

War was now declared and begun, and the two parties, 
hitherto friends, or indifferent to each other, became ene- 
mies. So great a difference does so ^slight a change pro- 
duce. 


146 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Then, according to the legends of the Ammi, the 
great spirit of Shoozoo, looking out from the heavens at 
the combatants, and fearing that his worshippers might 
be destroyed, called a council of the gods. Simlee, his 
wife. Queen of Heaven, appeared, leaving her mists, and 
the great winged Alligator came up out of the Swamp, 
dripping with the flood, and the Fire-god left his place in 
the sky, and the Rainbow folded up his rays, and the 
Wind left the earth and sea, (so that there was a season 
of calms), and they all met in the sky to take counsel on 
the events that were about to transpire on earth. 

‘ ‘ Dire war, ’ ’ said Shoozoo, ‘ ‘ is hovering over the 
world, and, unless it is averted, neither Men nor Apes nor 
earth will long survive. Only recently I saw the world 
mount up toward the sky, and to-day it stands on tip-toe 
trying to reach the heavens ; for the Alps have not yet 
gone down. The great Swamp left its bed to march over 
dry ground, and has not yet gone back. The noise of 
the earthquake has hardly yet subsided, but still rever- 
berates in distant thunders ; and, should war yet rage, 
things will be so mixed up that nothing will remain for 
earth or sky that is certain for either. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I will arise as a mist, ’ ’ said Simlee, ‘ ‘ and, passing 
between the two armies, prevent their collision by de- 
stroying their sight.” 

“The Fire-god will soon scatter the mists,” said 
Night, ‘ ‘ so that they can fight in clear day. Let me 
rather settle down upon them, through whom none can 
see ; and, though it be but noon, I will wipe out their 
day.” 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


147 


And wrapping herself in thick clouds she started for the 
earth to cover the battle-field with impenetrable shadows. 

‘ ‘ Let me rather, ’ ’ said the great Alligator, ‘ ‘ empty the 
Swamp on them again, and overwhelm them with a 
second flood.” 

“They have made boats,” said the Wind, “and now 
defy the waters. Let me rather start the air against 
them. I will give it wings to beat their faces and call in 
Thunder to frighten them and Rain to blind them, and 
will so mix heaven and earth and sea together against 
them that they cannot proceed.” 

“ There is nothing,” said Shoozoo, “that will avail, 
but to assuage- their wrath, which crosses streams and 
night and outlasts weather. An interruption to-day pro- 
longs the war, but does not end it. Let us not, by im- 
peding them, add to their rage against each other and 
their anger against us. For I fear that men will one day 
mount to heaven and destroy the Gods.” 

This advice they consented to follow, not, however, be- 
cause any of them wanted to, but because they could not 
agree among themselves what to do. 

It was accordingly decided that the deities, operating 
all together, should descend to the combatants to work 
on their minds ; and so, wrapping themselves in clouds, 
and mists, and rain, and shadow, and light, which were 
all mistaken by Mortals for forms of the weather, they 
entered the battle with both Men and Apes, and worked 
for peace and a mitigation of the horrors of war. 

But when Men and Gods are thus at variance, the 
Gods fail ; and the council of heaven having broken 
up, the war of earth went on. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 



tween the two armies, like 


IRST Koree, unmindful of the 
counsel of the skies, moved 
forward, and, fearing neither 
Gods nor Monkeys, sought to 


an oak in an open field be- 
tween two forests. Breath- 
ing defiance to the Lali, he 
called out: 



He stood in the plain be- 


“ Who dares to meet me of all 3 ^our hosts, and ward off 
death from his brow when I discharge this dart, the 
swift avenger of my wrong? ’ ’ 

Him seeing, and not fearing, the great Tree-climber of 
the mountains ran to meet, he who had often pulled the 
tails of cats, and grinned at larger beasts. Stopping 
often, and then starting again, like a great river that 
now rushes with violence, and then stops and whirls in 
an eddy, (showing commotion in its stop as in its on- 
ward course), he, seeming irresolute, plunged at last at 
Koree, having eluded his missiles, and seized him with 
hands and teeth. Hair and blood flew from Koree, who 
in turn sent a blow to Tree-climber’s ribs, \\hich loosed 
his ribs and no less his fingers and teeth from Koree' 3 
flesh; and the great warriors, bleeding and aching, flew 


148 



KOREE’S CHAEEENGE. 


149 



150 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


apart. They stood, frowning like two mountain peaks 
about to fall with a crash upon each other, but were 
stayed in their rage by a return of Fear, the destroyer of 
battles. Both having enough, and being uncertain what 
it would be to get more, went back, one to the west like 
the sun, and the other to the east like a shadow; and 
there was a lull in the storm. 

Then Kimpoo, the skunk-scented, rising among the 
Tali, went forth, breathing war from his extended 
nostrils, and, scratching first his thigh and then his ribs, 
said in defiant tones: 

‘ ‘ Invaders of our homes ! go back to disgrace, or come 
forth to death.” 

So saying he threw a cocoanut which grazed the ear of 
Duco, calling forth a little blood and a big howl, and 
then passed on and struck the stomach of Pounder, pro- 
ducing only a grunt. 

Then High-tail, the Wood-pecker hunter, ran forth, 
he who knew all the holes in Possum Grove, and smelt 
at many and was sad. Aiming at Kimpoo a marrow 
bone, he threw it with such force, that, whistling through 
the air, it was heard but not seen. It entered his head 
where a flea had left a bite at early dawn; and as the 
bone went in his soul went out. Down he fell with a 
crash, as when a mountain fir is broken in the storm. 

Then Ilko, a friend of the slain ape and lover of 
huckle berries, rushed forth to avenge his death, and, 
aiming a stone at the head of High -tail, threw it with 
such precision that death entered where he struck, and 
the losses between the two forces were equal. 


PROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


151 


Then seeing that Death was to be the companion of 
this War, and uncertain which army would survive, 
Koree invoked the aid of Shoozoo. 

‘ ‘ Great spirit of the skies and Swamp, God and Alli- 
gator,” he said, “teach us to conquer on this field or to 
run away in time. May our arms be stronger than the 
enemy, or our feet swifter than Death.” 

And then rushing out he called on any of the Tali 
to come forth to meet him in battle, and particularly Ilo, 
the robber of his pleasures. 

But Ilo was sitting afar off with Sosee, guarding her 
against escape and the seductions of Oboo his rival, and 
he heard not the challenge to battle. 

But Owl-catcher heard, and, fired with anger and a 
desire for glory, went forth to meet him. On all fours he 
went, looking up at times as- he ran and rising on his feet 
to survey the field. 

Koree, advancing, threw a sharpened flint at him, aim- 
ing at where the hair is parted on the brow, and there it 
entered. The distant Alps disappeared from the eyes of 
Owl-catcher, and, as all things faded from his sight, he 
knew not whether the world or a monkey was collapsing. 

Now Ilo, hearing that he was challenged, came to the 
fight ; but not willingly. Sosee had demanded that he 
play not the coward ; for love cannot follow the timorous. 
But whether she deeply designed that he should die or 
be victor, none could fathom. He came to the front and 
met the proud Koree who said : 

“I have a plentiful supply of death for the Tali, and 
for you I will send it on this bone ; ’ ’ and he discharged 


152 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


a split marrow-bone at his breast. It was one that Sosee 
had sharpened while they talked together of love and 
acted out their conversation, and she had graved on it, 
with a bear’s tooth, the wing of a dragon fly. 

This marrow-bone pierced the flesh of Ilo, but not his 
love-tickled heart ; and he ran away screaming and bleed- 
ing, not wishing to die while in the joys of his first love. 

He sought out Sosee in the distance, who showered her 
compassion, if not her affection, upon him ; and she drew 
the bone from his breast, when, seeing it was the weapon 
of Koree which her own hands had fashioned, she was 
thrown into consternation. 

“ Is my lover fighting my lover ? ” she asked, “ and do 
I make the weapons that slay them ? ’ ’ and she rushed to 
the scene of battle and came between the lines. 

At the sight of Sosee a shout arose from the Ammi, 
who thought that she had escaped, or else that 
the Tali, fearing their defeat, were surrendering her. 
Koree ran to meet her, forgetful that the battle was rag- 
ing, when, being about to grasp her in his arms, he was 
struck by a cocoanut in the ear, which had been thrown 
by Tree-j umper, an ape from the Bamboo plains, who had 
started in her pursuit. Koree fell to the ground, stunned 
by the stroke of the ape and the sight of his beloved, for 
the double blow on his eye and ear 'exhausted him, being, 
already wear}^ from strife. But he fell unhurt, and was 
picked up by friends and carried to a place of safety. 

Sosee, however, was seized by Tree-jumper, and taken 
back to the Tali, who placed her far from the front, where' 
she was safe from both death and rescue. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


OW the battle raged on all 
sides. Not one but many 
went forth from each army, 
and were engaged in groups 
fighting hand to hand,’ or 
throwing missiles. The 
sudden appearance of Sosee, 
which revived the hopes of 
the Ammi, who thought the 
girl and the end of the war 
were both within their 
grasp, increased their fury 
when they saw her followed by a captor, and a general 
rush was made to take the field and the girl by storm. 

First Pounder entered the combat, and was met by an 
ape from the north country. This ape was descended 
from a long line of heroes ; Sookaloo was his father, who 
had fought bumble-bees in the meadows about the great 
springs, and there the bones of his kindred repose. This 
- ape, advancing to meet Pounder, drew the battle toward 
him. Both clenched and opened their jaws, and soon 
both were in each other’s arms and teeth. Anger and 
strength met in Pounder, and were united for the death 
of his antagonist. But this was delayed awhile, and 

153 



154 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


struggles, growls and blood were yielded instead. Then 
weakness followed, and at last darkness gathered about 
the eyes of the ape ; his thoughts took flight, and quiet 
settled over him even in battle. 

Striding over his body Pounder now rushed on to new 
conquests, impatient for more strife. A great gorilla-like 
monster next met him, approaching from afar. With 
thoughts of death in his eye, he came walking on his 
hands, swinging his great body between them, like a 
huge kettle between two posts. He appeared to be walk- 
ing and sitting at once. 

‘ ‘ Come you to bring new honor to these arms ? ’ ’ said 
Pouuder. ‘ ‘ I will soon bear your death about me as a 
trophy, and those that I send out of the world will not 
be lonely beyond the Swamp.” 

As when Day and Night meet at dawn, and, in hot 
contest redden the whole sky with blood, and. Night 
being slain. Day moves on over the sky in undisputed 
and undivided sway, so these mighty heroes met, and in 
the battle the ape was overcome and sank from the con- 
test, while Pounder, rising like the sun from the death of 
Night, marched on victorious over the scene, and was 
lord of the field. 

On again rushed Pounder, like Hector at Troy ; and 
the Apes, seeing their warriors fall at his strokes, feared 
to engage him in single combat. 

‘ ‘ Det us attack him together, ’ ’ they said ; and two 
great apes stood up to meet him, like twin mountain 
peaks approached by a storm. One met his fist with his 
eye and saw no more that day ; the other siezed his arm 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


155 


and in that grasp laid hold of Death, whom none survive ; 
and as he fell the dull earth reechoed the crash to the 
mountains, which he alone did not hear. 

! Terror now took hold of all that beheld the mighty 
Pounder, and they fled from his advance as peasants 
working in a field flee from an approaching flood, some 
to be overtaken and destroyed, and others to escape to a 
safe place in the high-lands. Pounder now chased, 
instead of fought, the Apes, hunting for a foe with whom 
to measure his strength arid with difiiculty finding one- 

At last Ilo, recovering from his wound, but not his 
rage, rushed again to the field, (impelled also by Sosee), 
and, seeing the advance of Pounder, which drove the 
Apes before him, met him with a stone, (which reaches 
further than an ape’s arm). Forth into the air, like Iris 
fiom the command of Jove, rushed this messenger of 
wrath, and, singing a battle cry as it went, it struck 
Pounder in the breast ; when out went his breath and up 
went his feet — but only for awhile. Pounder arose again, 
but, being unable to fight, was carried back by his com- 
rades ; and again the fight went on without him, to his 
great disappointment. 

The Apes, encouraged by the arrest of the flood of 
death, now returned to the field, and everywhere were 
single fights. Stones, cocoanuts, gourds and bones flew 
through the air. Cries and groans mingled with growls, 
and which was man and which was monkey could not be 
discerned in the battle. 

Finger-at-his-nose, an ape from the shores lying to the 
south, where his ancestors fished for crabs with their tails. 


156 


FROM MONKFY ro MAN. 


and made mighty grimaces while waiting for a bite, 
scraped the face of Stretch-mouth with a shell, and was 
put to flight with a club in hands of Abroo ; and, as he 
ran a shower of stones followed him, and he thought the 
crabs of all the Swamp were pulling at him. 

Then High-climber, who was quick to look around and 
unfriendly to mosquitos, advanced from among the Apes 
with a cocoanut in his hand. This cocoanut he had 
pulled in a dense grove at sunset and hid at the foot of a 
palm, where a buzzard was feeding on an aurochs. The 
buzzard dug it up and carried it to a mountain crag, 
where Imko, finding it, brought it to the camp of the 
Tali. There High-climber, seeing it, again took possess- 
ion of it and slew Imko the supposed thief. With this 
cocoanut. High climber, aiming at the head of Frog- 
catcher, struck him where the nose separates the eyes, 
like the mountains of Caucasus between two great seas. 
Frog-catcher fell and one less Ammi was left to propagate 
the new race. 

Then Watch-the- Girls, furious with rage, rushed forth, 
and, with a sharp stone and loud shout, mixed in the 
fight. Ape after ape fell before her, wounded or scared. 
Tike a she-wolf tearing the fold she ran about dealing 
destruction, while the timid flock fled on all sides, or 
gathered in groups too frightened to flee. One, Bushy- 
face thought to resist her, and, turning, aimed a dart at 
her bright eye. But, too dazzled or too terrified to aim, 
he missed his mark, when, from the same eye, she sent a 
dart of defiance and from her hand a stone. Both struck- 
the eye which aimed the first blow, and back went retri- 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


157 


bution on the wrong intended. Down sank Bushy-face 
in darkness, and away went all things from his view. To 
the world the monkey was no more, and to the monkey 
the world was no more ; and which was destroyed has 
never been settled between them. 

Then off in the distance was heard a great chorus of 
screams, while a rush of all the Apes to that quarter drew 
the battle with it. The girls, who had been led to the 
war by Watch -the -Girls, then thought to enter the fight. 
They had been restrained by their leader; but now, 
impetuous, they rushed against the enemy; whom seeing, 
the salacious Apes, enamoured of the daughters of Men, 
and forgetting their anger in their lust, gave up the bat- 
tle for a rape, and rushed upon the girls to make them 
prisoners. The girls, scorning to be carried away instead 
of attacked, (having come to fight and not to be wooed), 
struggled hard with their captors* but more from pride 
than desire. 

Then all the Ammi, seeing that their girls were about 
to be taken, transferred the war to that quarter, and 
fought for their own, instead of against the enemy. 
Inspired by jealousy as well as rage, the battle now 
waxed fiercer, as when to a raging fire is added the 
wind, and the conflagration spreads into a forest. Death 
moved about rapidly over the field, visiting now a man 
and now an ape, and calling him to the Walhalla beyond 
the Swamp ; and the plain was scattered with his victims. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


BOO, hearing there was a 
fight for girls, now came for- 
ward to take part. He had 
till now sulked in the rear, 
because of Ilo’s good fortune 
in possessing Sosee. De- 
feated in love, and still 
smarting from his wounds, 
he had refused, like Achilles, 
to fight, and, nursing his 
wrath afar off, desired the 
defeat of the Lali. He had long insisted that Sosee 
should be restored to the Ammi, and the war ended. 
But, as others continued it, he persisted in his absence, 
even when the lyali were in danger of rout and their pos- 
sessions of loss. Many had fallen on account of his inac- 
tion. Oft did the chiefs approach him to assuage his 
wrath. But the volcanic fires in his breast refused to be 
cooled, and awaited their time to burst out and destroy 
his rivals. An ape will not waste himself on an enemy 
when he has a rival for his anger. 

But hearing that there was to be a capture of girls, his 
anger melted into lust, and he relented. What neither 
the North Wind nor the Rain could do the warmth 

158 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


159 


within him sufficed to accomplish — it moved his mighty 
will. For dread War, stalking over the land and breath- 
ing his hot breath in his face, had failed to arouse him. 
Mightier Reason, borne on the tongue of Pity, could not 
move him. Even Glory had no allurements to draw him 
from his retreat. But Beauty, which now visited him in 
fancies, tickled him into action; and, like the needle fol- 
lowing the invisible pole, he went, strongly impelled, to 
the scene of battle, where to his thoughts a field was 
pictured with delights. 

Rumor- went abroad, and every where proclaimed to the 
female Apes that the great Oboo was coming to battle, 
and many hearts beat at the prospect of beholding him. 
Young women and maidens came to see, nor did the old 
stay away. Many who had an interest in him past, 
present or future, sought to look on; and those who 
could not be moved by love came from curiosity. 

With majestic step their hero advanced. Not as the 
common warrior comes came he forth. Slowly like the 
Morning, he advanced to the eyes of a wondering world. 
A female ape had parted his locks in the morning and 
picked the burrs from his shaggy limbs; and, as he stood 
out against the sky, his form was a monument of beauty 
to both the women and himself. 

Eooking to one side and then to the other, (not to 
reconnoitre, but to receive the admiration of the females) 
he reflected, as he shook his slender legs, that they who 
now beheld him with solicitude would receive him back 
with gratitude. Victory seemed assured in his bearing, 
and, like the sun at noon, he dazzled the hosts with his 
splendor. 


160 FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 

Such was the appearance of the mighty Oboo on en- 
tering the field; and as he advanced the eastern zephyrs 
moved through his louse-less locks, and his brow, like 
the forest-crowned head of Mt. Ida, seemed glorified. 

Him seeing from afar the great Boomboo, calling all 
the Gods to his aid, ran forth to meet. ‘ ‘ O Shoozoo, ’ ’ he 
cried, “lend me all the heavens with their fires and loud 
thunders to match this terror of the plains, the wrath- 
inflamed fighter of men and lover of women; and to- 
night I will devote to you a live dragon fly caught 
where the thistles of the Swamp do bloom and the bats 
are sleeping. ’ ’ 

So saying he seized a big water-melon, such as two 
men of our day could not lift, and he raised it in mid air. 
It was a melon which had grown on the sandy banks of 
Alligator Swamp ; three generations had eaten fruit from 
that spot, and cast the seeds along the wide-reaching 
shore. This great water-melon the mighty Boomboo 
smashed on the head of Oboo. For, throwing it with 
great force, he sent it heavily through the air, as when a 
huge rock is thrown convulsively from a volcano. A 
great flying terror it went, casting a moving shadow over 
the earth ; and it went not in vain ; but, descending from 
its flight, it struck the well-picked head of Oboo, and 
dreadful was the sound of the thud. 

Bursting with a quake, as when the earth opens, it was 
scattered in countless pieces, never to be again united. 
Pulp and rind and seeds were splattered over his brow 
and well-smoothed locks, and the juice ran down over his 
face, and covered his hairy chest, and flowed from his 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


161 


limbs to the ground. Dripping and sticky the proud 
Oboo, like a half-drowned rat crawling out of a well, 
sneaked away, unfit to be seen, and would no longer 
match his prowess against the Ammi in battle. 

Inextinguishable laughter arose among the men ; while 
even kmong the Dali there was merriment. The females 



THK RETRKAT of THE EAEI. 


were most amused at the seed-besplattered lover; and 
Ilo, glad in his heart at his inglorious retreat, said with 
contempt : 

‘ Go back to the women and get dried up ; you were 
made not for war, but for love.” 


162 


FROM monkey to MAN. 


Like a bubble blown by a boy, which swells bigger and 
bigger, until the sky and mountains are reflected in it, 
and then, at the moment of its greatest bulk, when it 
seems to carry the whole world, bursts and settles into a 
little suds, so the swelling Oboo, who matched the sun 
in its splendor when he came to battle, dwindled to a sop 
as he returned. 

Meanwhile the girls who had been drawn into the bat- 
tle, and for whom Oboo had left his retreat, fought so 
fiercely that none of them were captured, but many of 
their assailants were slain or left wounded on the field. 

And now all the Lali retreated from the victorious 
Ammi, being demoralized by the victory of the girls and 
the discomfiture of Oboo, while the Ammi prepared to 
move with all their force on the Lali and to end the war 
that day. 

But Night settled down on the contending armies, and 
the wheels of history stopped awhile. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


EEP came not to the Ammi 
that night, but instead Pes- 
tilence settled down upon 
them. The water of the 
Swamp, stirred by the recent 
floods, and the strange fruits 
which they had eaten since 
leaving home, had brought 
Colic to the camp, and, like 
Dreams, it visited the 
couches of the heroes, and 
rolled them about in aches 
and pains. Night slackened its pace and dwelt long 
among them, covering with darkness their pain ; and, as 
they ran about holding their stomachs and looking for 
sweet relief, which came not, the Tali, who faintly dis- 
cerned their movements in the moon-light, thought they 
were making preparations for battle, and so they fled, lest 
disaster should follow on their defeat of the day before. 
Thus did the Tali run away from the Belly-ache. 

And when Aurora, closing the gates of the world on 
Night, advanced, announcing with freshened breath the 
Day, and her golden train fell in rich drapery over the 
eastern sky, the Ammi were seen lying about in groups, 
163 



164 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


doubled up and griping, each caring not for glorious vic- 
tory but for peace within. Koree forgot his beloved 
Sosee, and Pounder lay in a big heap, caring neither for 
battle nor country. 

Gimbo walking about on all fours administered relief, 
being physician as well as priest. 

“There is nothing so good for colic,” he said, “ as to 
pound the stomach ; ” and, taking a long-necked pump- 
kin, he gave each a blow on the spot where the pain was 
felt. This caused the patient to give a jerk and a howl. 

“That is good;” said Gimbo, “ it is the colic jumping 
out of you;” and in very bad cases he repeated the blow. 

“It is well,” he added, “to keep your stomachs 
turned toward the Swamp ; the colic always goes out on 
that side, owing to the influence of the Alligator. ’ ’ 

He also applied the wing of a dragon fly to those who 
had not yet contracted the complaint, with a view to keep 
it away. 

“ When the colic sees this sign of Shoozoo,” he said, 
“ it is afraid to come near you.” 

There were no hostilities that day, the Tali being kept 
back by fear and the Ammi by colic. 

On the morning following, when Pain and Fear had fled 
from both camps, the combatants were far apart. The 
Tali had retreated either for safety or preparations, and 
the Ammi had the field, but were without an enemy 
either to fight or treat with for peace. 

Anxiety now took the place of colic in their breasts, 
and uncertainty about what the Tali were devising made 
them hesitate about their own course. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


165 


Meanwhile other matters came to occupy their atten- 
tion. 

“ I have long. noticed,” said Gimbo, ” that it is getting 
colder. Walking on four feet I learn things sooner than 
others. I used to walk without discomfort to my hands. 
But now the ground is so cold that I can hardly stand it 
with either feet or hands. I must get up a tree to keep 
warm, or else go into a hole.” 

Others had observed the same change. In fact it was 
the sudden cold, coming the night before, that helped 
bring on the colic just mentioned. It disturbed the tem- 
perature of the body, and the first inconvenience from 
sudden changes of climate was felt by mankind. 

Nor was this a small matter. The first Glacial Period 
had set in. That great catastrophe which, at the end of 
the Tertiary Age, covered the northern hemisphere with 
mountains of ice, burying the earth out of sight, and 
destroying all life, was beginning to make itself felt. 

Farther to the north, (as they heard), the progress of 
the cold was well under way, but now its influence first 
reached the Ammi. 

“What is that ? ” asked several at once, directing their 
attention to the sky. 

A snow storm had come. It was the first snow that 
had fallen in those regions, and was a stranger to both 
Men and Apes. 

“It’s the clouds coming down from the sky,” said one; 
“ they have broken in pieces and are falling.” 

“ It is blossoms from the trees in heaven,” said Koree, 
who had grown sentimental from long thinking about 


166 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Sosee ; “ Shoozoo is shaking them down as he runs 
through the forests after owls. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I think it is dragon flies, ’ ’ said Gimbo, who observed 
the form of the flakes. “There is here -the short-beam 
and the long-beam. Surely Shoozoo is coming to the 
earth, and we ought to be very devout.” 

Among the Tali the snow produced still greater con- 
sternation. Some said it was the white form of Simlee, 
the wife of Shoozoo, who was coming to the Apes ; and 
all agreed that it came on account of the w^ar between 
the Apes and the Men. In as much as a snow-flake, 
when examined, was seen to turn to water, a priest of 
the Tali remarked that it was going back to Shoozoo, the 
great reservoir, or Swamp, into which all things at last 
return. 

Suddenly there was a tremendous rush of arctic ani- 
mals over both camps, and all the country, as far as the 
the eye could reach, was alive with them. They came 
from the north where the heavy snows had started a 
migration southward. Aurochs, reindeer, Irish elk and 
other kinds now extinct, were in the herds. They rushed 
pell-mell before the snows, tramping down everything in 
their way, and falling over one another, like a stampede 
of buffaloes or wild horses. Many were trampled to death 
Or else left maimed in their trail. Mingled among them 
were lions, leopards and other savage beasts, which fol- 
lowed them for food, or were also migrating to a warmer 
climate ; so that there was a slaughter of many kinds in 
the herds. It seemed to the Ammi as if all the beasts 
had gone to war, as well as the Men and Apes, and were 


FROM MONKERY TO MAN. 


167 


marching in great armies and fighting constant battles. 

“The Sky and the North are both pouring out their 
forces upon us, “'said Abroo. 

“ Tet us catch them, and keep them for food,” said 
Qko, who had been trying to tame a calf of the Urus 
which he had captured, thus beginning the work of 
domestication, which the descendants of the Ammi have 
continued till now. 

“ It is better to let them go,”, said Koree, who picked 
up the clubs and missiles which they had scattered ; 
“ we ought to be glad to be rid of them.” 

For some of the Ammi had been trampled to death in the 
stampede, so that this incursion of cattle upon them was 
nearly as destructive as the war. 

After the herds had gone by, they were seen to spread 
out over the plains in the direction from which the 
Ammi had come to the seat of war. There they found 
grass and were leisurely grazing. 

“It looks,” said Abroo, “ as if they had come to stay, 
so that when we return from the war they will dispute 
the possession of Cocoanut Hill with us. ’ ’ 

The snow, however, continued to fall, which, like the 
curse of the wandering Jew, was to give the fugitives no 
rest. 


CHAPTER XXXL 


EANWHILE the Eali who 
had been worsted in the war, 
and whose defeat even the 
gallant Oboo could not avert, 
determined on a change of 
tactics. Recognizing their 
inferiority as combatants (be- 
ing not so generally armed 
or so skilled in the use of 
arms as the Ammi), they re- 
solved to make up in num- 
bers what they lacked in 
skill; and so they sent out ambassadors and summoned 
all the apes from the countries beyond, shrewdly using 
the respite of the last few days from battle to collect 
allies. 

Out into the forests and among the palm groves, there- 
fore, they went, calling to the inhabitants of the trees 
and vines to come down, and sending their summons 
into the tangled thickets of the swamps. And the apes 
left their cocoanuts and cinnamon branches, and came up 
out of their fisheries, (abandoning their sports with par- 
rots, and their fights with owls,) and hurried to the 
country of the Eali and the seat of war. 

16 § 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


169 


The Apes were far more numerous than the men, the 
latter being only one colony in the whole world, who 
were now all collected on one field of battle, whereas the 
Apes, though differing from one another, (being of many 
species besides the Man-apes,) were practically without 
limit (taking in all the country and all the varieties of 
Apes,) so that it was only a question of how wide a ter- 
ritory they should scour for allies, in order to bring any 
number to battle. 

These apes, moreover, could be easily united on almost 
any project, as there were yet no conflicting interests 
to dissuade them; so that in a short time an innumerable 
host was assembled at the seat of war — ^great, small, 
tailless, speechless and everything from the big gorilla to 
the common monkey. 

To add to the good fortune of the Tali, there had come 
also, along with the migrating cattle, several large herds 
of apes from the north, These, which at another time 
would have met the hostility of the Tali, and perhaps 
been slain as enemies, or as competitors for their food, 
were now welcomed and enlisted as allies against the 
Ammi. 

But the Apes, though countless, were not so closely 
confederated as the Men. They did not live together in 
large numbers, and the few groups that did exist were 
not accustomed to act long together. In fact the Apes 
hardly knew one another, so that they were unconscious 
alike of their power and their weakness. 

The forces of the two armies were, therefore, woefully 
unequal. On one side was a host as countless as the 


170 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


Myrmidons, composed, indeed, of motley groups, which 
might prove unmanageable in war, but which had to 
fight in order to cohere at all, and to fight soon. On the 
other side was a small, but skilled and disciplined body, 
more homogeneous and capable of keeping to a fixed 
purpose. It was obvious, therefore, that if the Apes 
should make a sudden attack they would overwhelm and 
extirpate the Ammi; for then, all the hosts would take 
part, and, being impulsive, would fight vigorously before 
having time to fall to pieces as a body. 

It becapie as important, therefore, for the Ammi to now 
have a delay of hostilities as it was before for the I,ali. 
This fact, however, was not known to the Ammi them- 
selves, who, on account of the distance between the two 
forces, were not aware of the reinforcements of the lyali. 

“Tet us proceed at once against the enemy,” said 
Koree, innocently inviting his own destruction. “They 
have retreated so far that it may take some time to find 
them.” 

“That’s right,” said Pounder, “we should begin early 
so that Night may^ot again overtake us before victory.” 

“Come then,” said Koree, “this day will decide ” 

Here there was a great surprise. As they were about 
to march to battle, and to their own destruction, Sosee 
burst in upon them, followed by a strange ape, both 
nearly breathless from running. 

Koree uttered a shput of joy, and ran to meet her. 
Others seeing her pursued, seized the ape that followed 
her, and were about to slay him when Sosee caused them 
to desist. 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


171 


“He is a friend, and has helped me to come hither, “ 
she said. 

And then, without regarding the expressions of joy on 
the part of Koree and others over her return, she called 
out loudly: 

“ Retreat 1 Hide in the woods! — and be quick! “ 

This’was startling to the Ammi, who believed they 
were on the eve of complete victory. 

She informed them of the countless hosts that had 
joined the lyali, who expected to move immediately on 
the Ammi and destroy them entirely. 

‘ ‘ If you can retreat long enough to delay the battle, ’ * 
she said, “ you may be saved. I heard the counsels of 
the lyali chiefs, and they agree that if they do not fight 
at once their forces can not be held together, but, being 
composed of different tribes of Apes, unused to disci- 
pline, will break up in confusion.” 

Sosee then told of her escape, which was undertaken 
as the only means of saving the Ammi, and accomplished 
at the risk of her own life. 

She had been guarded, she said, by Ho, Oboo and 
another, and so could not escape but by the greatest cun- 
ning and good fortune. Ilo, however, being engaged 
this day in the council of war, could not watch her 
closely, while Oboo, having become interested in some 
female apes belonging to the new comers, had wandered 
off after them, so that she was left practically alone. 
Being thus at liberty she persuaded the remaining guard, 
— a simple ape who did not understand his business, — to 
accompany her in a race, when she adroitly led him to 
the camp of the Ammi, and so escaped. 




FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


178 


On hearing her story, Koree, overjoyed at his good 
fortune and Sosee’s, said; 

“There is reason in what she says. Tet us retreat.” 

For Koree, having now received back Sosee, did not 
care what became of the war, but was ready for peace at 
any price. 

Pounder, however, objected. 

“I’m not afraid of all the Apes between here and 
sunrise,” he said, “and I am for fighting them. I’ll 
kill the big ones w’ith the little ones.” 

Others, however, more prudent, agreed with Koree, 
and it was decided to follow the advice of Sosee. 

So the whole force of the Ammi prepared to move 
back into the Swamp. 

“Tet us take everything with us,” said Oko. “We 
may need it when we get away.” 

“Delay for nothing,” said Sosee, “or you will not get 
yourselves away.” 

Soon, ^ therefore, they started on their retreat; when 
Sosee remarked: 


“ I must now go back to the Lali,” 








CHAPTER XXXII. 


^HESK words of Sosee, “I 
must now go back to the La- 
li,” caused more surprise to 
the Ammi than her sudden 



appearance among them had 
done. 



'/»’ fathomable in that girl,” said 
^ Pounder. “We undertook 


\\ this war for her, and now, 
when we have obtained her, 


she wants to go back to the enemy. I fear she has been 


won over to the Apes by flattery, or a new lover, and 
comes back as a .spy. Don’t let her return.” 

“J wonder,” observed Koree to himself, “if she really 
has a new lover. ” 

“If I do not go back,” she said, “ all I have told you 
will be in vain. If the Eali, who do not yet know that 
I am here, should learn of my escape, they will attack 
you at once, suspecting that I have communicated their 
designs to you ; and then all will be lost. ’ ’ 

“If you go,” replied Koree, “all will be lost at any 
rate — to me.” 

And Koree insisted that see should not return. 


174 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


175 


“ I do not believe her story,” said Pounder, “and I 
insist that we keep our ground and also keep her. Other- 
wise she may carry back information to the enemy. ’ ’ 

“ I think too,” said Koree, “ that we should not give 
up what we came for. If we go back without her our 
escape will not be worth the making.” 

Others thought it best to let her return, so that a dis- 
pute arose and finally a quarrel. Koree, however, pre- 
vailed ; and so, against her will, she was compelled to 
fall in line and enter the Swamp with the rest. 

But though Koree gained her possession he did not 
gain her consent. She refused to be reconciled to him, 
and insisted during the retreat that she be allowed to 
return.. 

“I know,” said Koree to himself, “that she has 
another lover. But she will soon forget him, and I will 
keep her now that I have her. She will be more easily 
won back to me in my presence than in my absence.” 

But Sosee, thus forced to remain, proved an enemy to 
him rather than a lover. 

“ I hate you,” she said, “and will never live with you 
if you do not let me go back.” 

“ You will never live with me if I do,” he replied. 

‘ ‘ I can escape again, ” she said, ‘ ‘ when we have saved 
the Ammi, and then I will return to you.” 

“ If it required so much time and fighting,” he replied, 
“ to get you once, how much will it take to get you 
again ? ” 

“ If I escaped before without your aid, can J pot do 30 
again ? ” 


176 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


‘ ‘ I am not sure you will want to come back, with all 
your ape lovers.” 

‘ ‘ I shall not want to come back to you, if you do not 
let me go ; but to my mother and Orlee and the rest I 
will return. If you care .for nothing but your love you 
are unworthy of mine.” 

But Koree was determined, and would not let her go. 

She thus saw all her unselfish sacrifices about to be 
defeated by a selfish lover. 

The conversation of the Ammi now reverted to the 
probability of her story and the advisability of their 
further retreat. ' 

“L,et us wait,” said Abroo, after they had gone some 
distance into the Swamp, “till we see the result of thr 
alliances formed by the Apes.” 

” I will wait,” said Pounder, “ only on condition that 
we return and fight them. If what the girl says is true 
they will soon fall out among themselves, so that even 
the cowardly need not fear them.” 

“What is to be gained by fighting them at all,” asked 
Oko, “ if they have nothing that we want? ” 

“You greedy beast!” returned Pounder, savagely; 
“is it nothing to vanquish the Tali? and if all the 
Monkeys of the forest are collected, is it nothing to whip 
them all at once? It is base to make this retreat; and I 
have a notion to smash the jaw of the fellow that 
proposed it.” 

“This is not a retreat,” explained Abroo, calmly, 
but a movement to disable the enemy by delay. We 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


177 


shall be better able to fight when they are less able tc 
cooperate. ’ ’ 

And thus the talk went on for hours, when Koree sud- 
denly interrupted it with the question: 


“Where is Sosee?*’ 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 


HE disappearance of Sosee 
without anybody knowing it 
was a new puzzle to the 
Ammi. Was she spirited 
away by some supernatural 
power? or did she simply 
drop out of line into the 
bushes ? These were among 
the questions asked. 

“She is a spy,” persisted 
Pounder, ‘ ‘ having first be- 
come a traitor.” 

J ‘ If her story be true, ’ ’ observed Abroo, ‘ ‘ she thinks 
more of her people than of her lover, and is a great 
heroine to thus sacrifice her love to save her race.” 

‘ ‘ Whatever be the facts, ’ ’ said Koree, not appreciating 
this kind of unselfishness, “let us search for her. It 
she be a spy she should not return to the enemy, and if 
she be a heroine she should not be lost to us.” 

“ In either case,” said Pounder, “ you want to get her 
for yourself, and do not care what becomes of the war.” 

“Let us first make ourselves safe,” said Abroo, “and 
then talk of finding her. In this great Swamp with its 
endless entanglement of bushes, we could not find her 

MS 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


179 


any sooner than the Lali can find us; whereas if we save 
ourselves from the danger she describes, we must retreat 
farther at once. ’ ’ 

“ I shall search for Sosee,” said Koree, “ and will re- 
turn to you only when I find her.” 

So saying Koree left the rest of the Ammi and started 
back to find his beloved, taking several friends with him. 

They were soon lost in the wilderness; but by the 
position of the sun they kept their steps bent in the 
direction of the Tali. 

“There is only one cour.se that she could take,” said 
he; “whether she go as a spy or to a lover, she will 
seek the Tali by the most direct route, and in either case 
I want her, and want her soon; so let us head her off.” 

Swift then through the wilds they pressed back, push- 
ing. aside the bushes, wading in the marshes, jumping 
over fallen trees, and picking out a possible route through 
an almost impassable country. When they came to an 
open place, they reconnoitred. Now and then they met 
a serpent or alligator, and continually they feared more 
savage beasts, whose cries were heard around them. 

“This is a terrible wilderness for Sosee to pass 
through,” observed Koree, “ but if she is going to meet 
a rival, or betray the Ammi, I don’t know whether I 
want her to get through.” 

‘ ‘ We will at least reach the Tali first, ’ ’ said one of his 
companions. 

“ I am not sure of that,” replied Koree. “Sosee is 
swift of foot, and finds her way better than anyone I 
know.” 


180 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


Soon they came upon some straggling apes, but as 
these differed somewhat from the lyali they paid little 
attention to them, thinking they were chance hunters in 
the thickets. 

These apes, however, were soon met so frequently, 
and finally became so numerous, that Koree remarked: 

“ I wonder if they are not some of the new comers of 
which Sosee spoke. ’ ’ 

Presently he climbed a tree, from which he looked be- 
yond the confines of the Swamp, where he saw an 
innumerable swarm of apes, filling all the country about 
the habitations of the Tali. So many animals he had 
never before seen together. His worst suspicions were, 
therefore, confirmed. 

“Sosee has, indeed, reported the truth,” he said; 
“such a multitude would have overwhelmed the Ammi 
in one attack, and left nothing remaining of the human 
race.” 

Hurrying down, therefore, from the tree, he called on 
his comrades to turn back to the Ammi. 

‘ ‘ Tet us return and take precautions for our safety, ’ ’ 
he said; “soon those apes will scatter, or kill one another 
off ; no country can long support such a number.” 

“ But what about Sosee?” asked his companions. 

“We cannot find her in this Swamp,” replied Koree ; 
* ‘ and, as her story of the reinforcements of the Apes is 
true, the rest is not incredible, so that her return to them 
may be necessary for our safety.” 

Now, therefore, for the first time, did Koree appreciate 
the heroism of Sosee ; and the sacrifice of her lover 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. ' 181 

seemed magnanimous when it was clear that it was not 
for another lover. 

They retraced their steps, therefore, and before night 
were again with the main body of the Ammi, to whom 
they related what they had seen. 

‘ ‘ Where is Sosee, ’ ’ asked one. 

“We have not seen her,” replied Koree, “but we 
found her true, which is more important ; ’ ’ for Koree 
before his search had begun to doubt the faithfulness of 
his beloved, which he was now glad to establish, even at 
the expense of her possession. 

As night settled down on the Ammi in the Swamp a 
great light appeared in the north, an object of beauty and 
terror to them. The sky was illumined with brilliant 
and changing rays, like a sunrise at midnight. The 
heavens seemed to be on fire, and the conflagration to be 
approaching the earth. It was one of those gigantic 
electric storms which swept over the ancient world and 
vied with the earthquakes, mountain upheavals, and 
deluges of the period, when the Earth still acted as a 
whole. Night and Day were apparently in conflict, mix- 
ing great fields of light with alternate streaks of dark- 
ness, and chasing each other over the whole heavens. 

“ What can this mean? ” asked several aV once. 

‘ ‘ The Fire-monster is sweeping down upon us, as well 
as the Monkeys, ’ ’ answered one ; “he has already siezed 
the heavens.” 

“ It don’t mean any good,” said Gimbo ; “ Shoozoo is 
angry, and has sent his winged Alligator to destroy us. 
I will get the dragon-fly which cured us of the colic.” 


182 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


Wearied, however, they soon sank to rest, and lying 
under an open sky, which seemed all on fire, they slept, 
and their dreams that night were disturbed equally by 
fears of the Aurora and of monkeys. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 



EVKRAIy times during the 
night strange sounds were 
heard, *Once thej'- were all 
aroused, thinking the Eali 
were upon them. At another 
time they thought a wild 
beast was prowling near 
them, and again that they 
heard sounds made by 
the Aurora Borealis. Near 
morning, when the first glimmer of light appeared, there 
was a rush in the direction from which came an ominous 
growl. One after another followed the leader to learn 
the cause of it. In their haste the foremost stumbled on 
a huge living object, which nearly frightened him to 
death; while the rest, in their impetuosity, fell over the 
same thing, so that soon there was a great heap of living 
humanity and wild confusion. 

All wondered what had thrown them, and, to increase 
their wonderment, the object did not move, but seemed 
indifferent to the tumbling which they did upon him. 
They were afraid to approach, until the light should be- 
come stronger; for they did not as yet have candles to 
guide them at night, but had to wait for the day, or else 

183 


184 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


grope in darkness. As it dawned, however, and things 
became more distinguishable, one, more venturesome 
than the rest, advanced, and, to his relief, found that it 
was Pounder, who was rolled up in a heap, and lay 
before them dead drunk. 

Among the roots dug up and eaten by the Ammi, was 
a species of mandrake, which had a stupefying effect. 
Pounder had become fond of this root, or rather of its 
effects, and he carried it about with him for occasional 
indulgence. His addiction to the habit was, perhaps, 
the cause of his quarrelsomeness; for he freqnently 
quarrelled with others, although this was, perhaps, the 
first case of well-defined spree known to humanity. 

Several of the Ammi, thinking he was dead, rolled 
him over, and repeated the rolling several times. 

“He is only sleeping,” said one; “see how he 
breathes;” and they shook him to wake him. 

Presently his eyes opened, when another exclaimed: 

“ He is neither dead nor asleep, but sick; perhaps he 
is dying. Call Gimbo.” 

Soon Gimbo, who was doctor, priest and prophet, all 
in one, approached with his dragon-fly and long-necked 
pumpkin, and, after a brief examination, in which he 
looked mysteriously wise, said: 

“It comes from the colic;” and, with these words, he 
seized the neck of the pumpkin, and with the big end 
pounded the stomach of his patient, adding: “This will 
fetch the colic out of him.” 

Pounder first grunted, then groaned,, and at last 
opened his eyes. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


185 


Gimbo, seeing this effect, congratulated himself, and 
went on pounding, saying, “He is coming out all right.” 

Pounder who neither understood nor enjoyed this 
treatment, raised himself half up, and, to the surprise of 
all, dealt Gimbo a powerful blow with his fist, saying, 
“Get out you old four-footed ape with your big 
pumpkin! 

He then sank back in his stupor, but placed his hand 
on his stomach for protection. 

Gimbo, picking himself up, said: 

“The disease acts strangely; but he is gaining 
strength, and will soon be well.” 

He did not recur to the pumpkin treatment, however, 
but relied henceforth on the dragon-fly for a cure, which 
he applied at a distance. 

The Ammi now gathered about Pounder, and, with 
astonishment on their faces, contemplated the change 
that had come over him. The mightiest of their number 
was seen lying before them the weakest and silliest. It 
disgusted them that he should so put himself out of his 
own power, as to be at the mercy of the smallest monkey, 
and especially that he who could fight so bravely should 
grin and puke so contemptibly. 

But these discussions did not interest Pounder, who 
slept on unmindful of his glory or his disgrace. 

About this time the Ammi were again heard com- 
plaining of the cold, which had been rapidly increasing 
since the snow storm mentioned, and they cast about for 
devices to reduce its discomforts. 


186 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


At night they sought the leeward side of trees and hills; 
they also went into caves and huddled up closely to keep 
warm. But this did not suffice. They were cold both 
by day and night, and every one sought other means of 
warming; 

From the habit of covering themselves with leaves 
when sleeping, the thought was suggested, that if they 
could surround themselves with leaves during the day 
they might be more comfortable at all times. 

‘ ‘ The difficulty is to make the leaves stick together, ’ ’ 
said Abroo; “let us fasten them by their stems, or 
.string them on blades of grass.” 

Soon a garment of leaves and grass was woven in this 
way, which was the beginning of clothing and of the 
vast dr5"-goods interest of the world. 

Up to this time the Men, like the Apes, had been 
naked. They had found no use for clothing; the cli- 
mate was warm, and the feeling of shame had not yet 
entered their breasts. They were covered with hair, 
which grew longer since they had come north; and, 
though this furnished some protection, and was highly 
appreciated since the cold weather set in, it was not suf- 
ficient for their comfort. Some had longer hair than 
others, and so stood the change better, while those of 
little or short hair often fell sick and died of colds, rheu- 
matism, and other winter complaints. The invention of 
clothing, however, equalized their condition again, so 
that long hair was deemed of no special advantage. 

The leaf-garments, however, did not long satisfy them. 
They could not make a fabric of such materials that 


i^ROM monkey 'i^O man. 


187 


would stand the rough usage to which it was subjected. 
In their running, climbing and other violent exercises 
the wreaths broke or became detached, so that it was dif- 
ficult to keep them on. One’s whole suit sometimes fell 
off in an instant, leaving him in his skin and hair. 

“Bark, I think, would do better than leaves,” said 
Koree, who had made himself a suit of the inner rind of 
a tree. He found this so rough, however, that it soon 
wore off the hair and skin in places, so that he looked 
like a horse galled by the harness. 

“Pound the bark to make it soft,” said Watch-the- 
girls, who had made a neat garment for herself from 
well-selected strips of bark, from which she had 
removed the rough spots. 

“ Skins would keep us warm; and they are soft,” said 
another woman, who had placed about her shoulders the 
hide of a sheep which had been used as a receptacle for 
darts. 

This was an unfortunate discovery for the animals. 
For in a little while the Ammi, finding that skins were 
more desirable than anything else as a protection from 
cold, sought animals for their skins, and killed more for 
this purpose than they had before killed for food.. 

The use of clothing in time became general, and the 
Ammi learned the important lesson that they were inde- 
pendent of the weather, and could carry their climate 
about with them, making it to order. 

The use of clothing, however, developed into a dan- 
gerous luxury. They soon came to have preferences, not 
only on account of warmth and softness, but on account 


188 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


of appearance. Bright colors were chosen as most 
desirable, and those were more in esteem who dressed 
well. Much of their time was accordingly given to 
making garments, especially among the women, and 
many bits of decoration were in time added, so that pride 
and art were soon developed in dress. 

Pounder, however, always despised dress, and would 
not put on anything whatever; and several others, who 
admired his strength and bravery, were led to follow his 
example. Gimbo said it was wrong to dress, and that if 
people would only keep on all fours they would not need 
clothes; so he, as long as he lived, went naked and on 
all fours, no matter what the weather or the occasion. 

But the men went on in their vanity about dress, until 
they soon wore more wool than the sheep; and Gimbo 
complained that something was wrong when each animal 
did not wear its own skin. 

Fire-tamer said they might keep warm by getting a 
wood-eating animal and keeping it in the camp. 

“ While I kept mine,” he said, “ I was warm. When 
he shook himself the Cold fled affrighted, and would not 
come near again until he disappeared.” 

“That’s worse than clothes,” said Gimbo; “don’t 
bring it here, or we will all be killed and eaten up.” 

“ The beast is liable to get loose,” said another, “ and 
attack us any moment. We have seen what he did at 
the volcano and in the forest.” 

“I will get a young one,” said Fire-tamer, who 
thought a small fire was an immature or half-grown ani- 
mal, and that it could be easily managed. 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


189 


But the Ammi were afraid, and would not allow the 
beast to be brought to the camp, dead or alive; and so 
they went on shivering, and it took them some time to 
shiver into sense. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 


HE next day Fire-tamer, who 
had been hunting in the 
Swamp, returned to the Ammi, 
with a piece of burning wood. 
Having seen a tree struck by 
lightning, which was nearly 
consumed, and thinking he 
understood the habits of the 
beast, he raked in the ashes 
till he found this brand. 
Bringing it with him, he 
thought, as the fire curled on the end of it, like a snake, 
that he had caught a wood-eating animal. 

“There he comes with a little one,” said Koree, as 
Fire-tamer approached the Ammi. Gimbo was horrified, 
and ran away. The rest, though prohibiting its intro- 
duction the day before, had suffered so much during the 
night from cold, that they were now willing to give it a 
trial, which Gimbo thought very inconsistent in them. 

Fire-tamer laid it down, when, to the surprise of all, it 
did not run away. He then brought leaves to feed it, 
when it flamed up, or became ‘ ‘ mad, ’ ’ as they thought. 
None, however, would come near enough to feel its 
effects; when they said it was of no use as a warmer. 

190 




192 


FROM MONREY 1^0 MAN. 


“ Wait till he shakes himself,” said Fire-tamer, “and 
you will get a fanning from his wings that will warm 
you all over. ” 

He then fed the monster with brush, when to the sur- 
prise of all, who now approached with confidence, it ate 
greedily, and soon warmed them perceptibly. 

“See how he cracks the bones with his teeth,” said 
Pounder, in admiration of its strength, as the fire 
crackled and the sparks flew. 

“See what a dust he kicks up,” said another, as he ob- 
served the smoke. 

A spark at this moment flew out and lighted on 
Pounder, who gave a growl, and said the beast had 
snapped at him. He could scarcely be restrained from 
attacking it with his fists. 

All were gratified, however, at the warmth produced; 
for the day was cold, and they had not on their clothing, 
or else did not know how to use it. They accordingly 
huddled about the fire, and soon came to regard it as a 
necessity. 

“ How can we keep it from running away?” asked 
one, who thought of their misfortune when they should 
be without it. 

“How can we take it with us when we move?” 
asked another. ‘ ‘ I would not like to take hold of it or 
lead it.” 

“Fire-tamer can catch another,” answered Koree, 
“for he is skilled as a hunter of this monster, as well as 
a manager of it.” 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


19 ^ 


They wondered most at the voracity of the beast, who 
ate all the brush and logs they could carry to him. 

‘ ‘ He grows bigger at once on what he feeds, ’ ’ said 
one, as the fire increased with the supply of several 
trees; “ see how fat he is getting, and how he struggles 
at his meals. One would think the tree is alive at which 
he is eating, and that he is fighting to kill it, as when a 
tiger eats an alligator. ’ ’ 

When the fire died down, and it was not convenient to 
get more wood, Cocoanut-scooper threw in some vegeta- 
bles and fruits, saying: 

‘ ‘ I wonder if he will eat these. He seems, like a hog, 
to eat everything.’^ 

But the fire continued to become less, and all were sur- 
prised that it was fastidious about its food, and would 
eat nothing but wood. 

More wood was, accordingly, brought, and soon the 
monster had reached its full size again. 

“ It does not pay to keep this animal,’* said Oko; “it 
^ takes all our time to carry food to him. lyoose him that, 
like the urus, he may wander through the forest and 
feed himself.’’ 

‘ ‘ He will eat the whole forest and us too, if he gets 
loose,’’ replied Fire-tamer. 

Several approached so near that they got burned, so 
that many doubted the utility of the beast on account of 
its danger. One who got a whilT of smo‘Ke in the face 
thought he was being attacked, and discharged a dart at 
the monster. 


194 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“ I am afraid to sleep at night with this brute in the 
camp,” said one; “he will eat us all before morning.” 

‘ ‘ When he appeared last night in the s^ky , ’ ’ observed 
another, referring to the Aurora, ‘ ‘ he did not harm us. ’ ’ 

The people, however, were divided, some wanting to 
get rid of him, and others to keep him. When it got 
warm the beast became unpopular, which was about 
the middle of the day; but as it cooled off toward night, 
he was more in favor. 

“He must be thirsty,” said Founder; “let us bring 
water and give him a drink.” 

So saying he went to a pool, and, filling a gourd, 
poured water on the fire, which had become low from 
lack of fuel. The fire immediately went out, to the sur- 
prise of all. 

‘ ‘ He hates water and has run into his hole, ’ ’ said 
Pounder. 

“Xet us dig him out,” said Koree, who thought he 
was a kind of woodchuck that could be easily unearthed. 

On examination, however, they found no hole into , 
which he could have crawled, and so gave up digging. 

“He will come out of a volcano soon,” said Fire- 
tamer, “ and I shall watch for him in the mountains.” 

Gimbo was profoundly thankful, however, that he was 
gone. He had worshipped him as a god out of fear; but 
now that water destroyed him, he worshipped the w^ter 
instead, as a greater spirit, and he was nearly converted 
to the religion of the' Tali, who had great faith in the 
power of water, and especially of the water of the 
great Swamp, in which the winged Alligator dwelt. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


195 


As evening came, however, with its dampness, they 
again suffered, and doubt came with their discomforts, 
and they slept uncertain whether fire should be the com- 
panion of their lives. 

And the night was full of stars and Gimbo of fleas, 
and as they passed each other on the way of time the 
problems of life were unfolding fo reason. 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 


HE next day the Ammi were 
startled at the sight of a 
strange ape, which was at first 
taken for one of the Lali, and 
they thought that the rest 
would soon be upon them: 
He was soon seen, however, 
to be of a different species, 
and so was allowed to pass 
unmolested. Next a whole 
group of apes appeared ; but, 
as they were small and apparently peaceable, they pro- 
duced no consternation. It was deemed best, however, 
to make a reconnoisance ; and so Pounder and Cocoanut- 
scooper each climbed a tree to examine the surrounding 
country. 

They reported the Swamp full of apes, which wan- 
dered about in groups apparently without purpose. 
There were generally a male and three or four females 
together. 

These were some of the immigrants which had recently 
come from the north, and were going south to escape 
the cold. They had remained a few days with the Eali, 
and were now scattering in all directions. The Tali 
themselves, they said, had all determined to migrate. 

196 



FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


197 


The Ammi, being therefore relieved of their fears, now 
determined to return to the battle-field. For, as the 
reenforcements of the Tali had dispersed, they thought 
they could safely fight them again. 

They accordingly started back toward the Tali with 
renewed courage. The cold was still increasing, and the 
waters of the Swamp through which they had come 
were frozen over. For most of the way they walked on 
ice, which made their return easy. They found some 
animals and birds along the route, which had been frozen 
to death, of which they ate as they went, and from which 
they re-supplied their stores. 

“ The cold has made a bridge for us across the waters,” 
said Koree, “ and we can now walk where we before 
waded.” 

” True,” said Oko, but it has taken away the water, 
and we shall have no fish, and not even anything to 
drink.” 

” It has turned the water into stone,” observed another, 
“and the land has all been changed into a white foam, 
so that we shall hereafter have neither land nor water.” 

The situation was critical indeed. The whole earth 
seemed about to be taken from them, or else turned into 
a new substance, cold, hard and forbidding. 

“ What can we do,” asked Oko, “but migrate like the 
Tali?” 

“Splash ! ” “ Splash 1 ” “Splash ! ” 

Such were the sounds now heard in quick succession, 
and accompanying them were cries, growls and great 
confusion. 


198 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


The ice had broken and let some of them into the 
water. Pounder, Cocoanut-scooper,, Abroo, Oko, and 
others were floundering in the waves, some swimming 
and others wading to their chins. The whole army was 
thrown into a panic. The earth seemed to have given 



THE AMMI BREAKING THROUGH THE ICE. 


way beneath them, or what they supposed to be new 
formed solid rock. 

“It doesn’t look as if the water had given out,” 
growled Pounder, with a savage glance at Oko. 

“ I wish it had,” observed Oko, as he tried to keep his 
head above the floating ice. 


^ROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


199 


A great scramble now ensued to regain the land, or a 
footing on solid ice. Several got to fighting in the water, 
and there was a great splashing and series of duckings. 

Those who got out stood shivering in the snow, and 
occasionally tried to help out others ; but most were 
afraid to go near the place of danger. 

When all had regained solid footing it became their 
chief care not to break in again. They had evidently 
met a new danger greater than the Tali. It was the 
water of the Swamp, which they had shortly before 
bewailed as having gone forever. They moved more cau- 
tiously, therefore, testing the strength of the ice as they 
proceeded. 

Before leaving the scene of the catastrophe, however, 
Oko, seeking to turn their misfortune to profit, picked 
up some pieces of floating ice, and proposed to take them 
along. 

These rocks,” he said, “will make good missiles. 
By using them on the Tali, we need not throw awa5' our 
cocoanuts. ’ ’ 

He accordingly filled a skin pouch with them, and car- 
ried some in his arms, while others followed his example. 
They soon found them, however, not only heavy and 
bulky, but having a new inconvenience. They imparted 
a sense of discomfort, now know as cold, which, being 
unknown to them, was dreaded as mysterious, like the 
effects of fire. 

After marching awhile they were rejoined by Fire- 
tamer, who had gone in search of another ‘ ‘ wood-eating 
beast.” He was successful in his search, and his game 


200 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


was acceptable to the Ammi, who had learned to appre- 
ciate the beast in cold weather. Even Gimbo was 
secretly glad, though he had to protest, from force of 
habit, that they were introducing a demon among them, 
and that they might as well be destroyed by the cold as 
eaten by the hot monster. 

They now all collected brush, and soon there was a 
roaring fire on the ice, at 'which they dried themselves 
and planned their future movements. The pieces of ice 
which Oko and others had carried for weapons, and 
which they had laid by the fire to warm, were found to 
have disappeared. They had melted and run away. 
Oko thought somebody had stolen them, and he got into 
a fight with Pounder over the matter, when finally a hall 
melted piece was seen to be turning into water. They 
then charged the theft to the wood-eating monster, which 
they thought was devouring their rocks. 

‘'He is worse than a hog,” said Oko, “to eat both 
wood and stone. ’ ’ 

They observed at this time that neither apes nor wild 
beasts approached them while they sat by the fire, but 
turned off at the sight of it with fear; so that Fire- 
tamer remarked; 

“If we could always have this animal with us, no 
other danger would come near.” 

It was scmietime after this, however, before men took 
lo building fires as a protection against wild beasts. 

They observed also that some of the fruits and roots 
which Cocoanut-scooper had tried to warm by placing 
them near the fire (for they were frozen) became scorched, ' 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


201 


or boiled in their own juice, and thereby much changed in 
taste. They found them better for the change; so that 
they soon sought to do by design what they firk did by 
accident — prepare their food by fire — which was the 
beginning of the art of cooking. 

They also discovered that their food, thus treated, was 
more tender and wholesome, so that they could eat many 
things which were before too hard or tough, and they 
thereby greatly increased their food, which was a matter 
of importance at a time when it was being reduced by 
the cold. 

They also observed that when the fire was burning at 
night, it illumined the .space about them, making a kind 
of artificial day. Night fled from it, as well as Cold and 
wild beasts, and stayed away as long as it remained. By 
its means they could see without sun, or moon or Aurora 
Borealis; and to overcome darkness in this way seemed 
the greatest triumph yet made by man or beast. 

Taking a stick one night which had been lighted at 
a heap of coals. Fire-tamer was enabled, by carrying it 
around, to find a wolf skin which Koree had lost, and 
which could not be found in the dark. This opened the 
eyes of the Ammi, and from that moment they began to 
use fire for light, as well as heat; and that stick was the 
first candle of .the human race. That day could be car- 
ried about in small pieces seemed astounding. 

Through this discovery Fire-tamer gradually became 
the most important man among the Ammi. Neither the 
strength of Pounder, nor the courage of Koree, nor the 
wisdom of Abroo impressed the populace so much as the 


202 


FROM MONKKY TO MAN. 


mastery by this man of the wood-eating beast. He was 
appealed to in all matters relating to fire. No other 
would venture to manage the animal. Fire-tamer came at 
length to be thought sacred. The beast, it was believed, 
dared not touch him. And Fire-tamer artfully used this 
mystery to strengthen his influence among the Men. He 
purposely kept them in ignorance and fear of tfie mon- 
ster. He meant to keep control of this interest, which 
he had the wisdom to perceive was soon to become the 
most important one among the Ammi. He had, in 
short, a ‘ ‘ corner ’ ’ on fire, and meant to keep it. 

The awe in which Fire-tamer was thus held, and the 
influence which he had in consequence among the peo- 
ple, excited the jealousy of Koree and other leaders, who 
saw their own star declining. Several quarrels ensued, 
and there was a crisis, when a happy solution was 
reached by making Fire- tamer a sort of high priest, 
whose business it was to have charge of the wood-eating 
monster and keep it burning, in return for which distinc- 
tion he was to abandon his ambition to control the Ammi 
in other matters. His office was the predecessor of that 
of the vestal virgins, and his charge — fire — became wor- 
shipped as a deity, while he, as keeper of it, became the 
chief ruler of men in religious matters. 

While they were discussing these interests, and the 
reciprocal bounds of church and state were being first laid 
off,, there arose a great commotion among them. 

“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!” 

Such were the sounds that were now heard a second 
time; but the terror was greater than before, and such a 
scene of confusion had never 5^et*been known to men. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


203 


The fire had melted the ice, which gave way, and men, 
I fire and all went down into the water. One over another 
they tumbled, and, amid smoking logs and sissing em- 
‘ bers, struggled with one another and with the floating 
ice. The fire was put out, and with it went the prestige 
of Fire-tamer, at least for awhile. 

Some thought the wood-eating monster had taken a 
plunge and was running away with them. They ex- 
pected to be carried under the ice and into the ground; 
and they were much relieved when they found that the 
monster had gone alone and left them behind, and, as 
they gradually regained the shore, or rather the firm ice, 
they presented such a mass of shivering and dripping 
humanity as had not been seen till that day. 




i 


/ 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 



HE first impulse of the Am- 
mi, on recovering their safety 
and their senses, was to kill 
Fire-tamer who was thought 
responsible for the ‘disaster. 
He was supposed to know 
the habits of the beast, and 
was deemed negligent in al- 
lowing them to be exposed 
to such a calamity. Pounder 
especially favored his death, 
and proposed to inflict it himself, as he had been twice 
submerged that day, and was specially out of humor. 

“ I knew,’’ said Gimbo, “ that it would come to this ; 
but you never take the advice of an old man. I don’t 
walk on four feet for nothing. ’ ’ 

What had become of the beast, was the next question. 

‘ ‘ Shall we go after it ? ” asked one. 

Another said ; ‘ ‘ Let us rather run away from it, and 

kill Fire-tamer if he brings another. 

“It would be a good thing to have,” said Koree, “now 
that we are so cold and wet.” 

“ As soon as it should dry us,” replied Pounder, “it 
would plunge us again in the water.” 

204 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


205 


Fire-tamer was puzzled, and it was well that he had 
nothing to say ; for the Ammi were not in a condition to 
listen to him. He an(J his beast were alike in disfavor, 
and so he waited for a cold day for his vindication. 

The Ammi proceeded on their way, but were terribly 
afflicted with the cold, which kept steadily increasing. 
Their feet and hands suffered most, for which they had 
as yet provided no covering. Walking through the snow 
and on the ice they had frequently frozen feet. Osa, a 
young and pretty girl, admired by many, was completely 
overcome, and fell back in the march to die. Aloo, her 
lover, sought means of taking her along ; but, after 
carrying her awhile in his arms, and enlisting others to 
aid him, he gave up exhausted, but stayed with her 
while the rest moved on, resolved to die also. As noth- 
ing more has been heard of them it is believed that they 
perished together. 

As the Ammi marched forward, they heard dreadful 
reports from the Apes which they met, of the cold of the 
north. The whole country was covered with snow ; the 
rivers were frozen ; the trees were dead ; the animals had 
left the country, or were perishing ; great mountains of 
ice had formed in the valleys ; all fruit had disappeared, 
and the roots were under the snow and could not be dug 
out of the hard ground. In the famine which accom- 
panied this change animals fell to eating one another, 
not only the dead but the living, so that when the sur- 
vivors reached the south they were much thinned out. 

“ It is foolish, ” said Oko, on hearing these reports, 
“to go back to fight the Tali. Tet us rather return 
home, gather up what is left, and go south also,” 


206 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


“ Not till Sosee is recovered,” said Koree. ” Neither 
Cold, nor Snow, nor Famine shall make us desist from 
war. I mean to march through all these to where she 
is, and to take her from the Lali even though they fight 
twice as hard as the Storm.” 

“She has, no doubt, left long since with some lover 
among the Fali, and is now in the south,” replied Oko. 

This was a more dreadful thought to Koree than that 
she should be perishing in the north. He accordingly 
gave a savage look and growl at Oko, and replied : 

‘ ‘ Whether she be in the snows -or in the arms of a 
lover, I shall rescue her.” 

He accordingly urged the army to quicken its pace, 
although to do so, they had to leave many perishing 
ones to die. He feared more that they would not find 
the Lali than they jvould, and so hurried to overtake 
those whom he had shortly before hurried to escape 
frohi. 

Watch- the-girls opposed this excessive speed, on ac- 
count of the many females in her charge who could not 
keep up, and whom she was unwilling to abandon in the 
snow. 

“ If we go so fast,” she said, “we will have no forces 
left when we reach the Lali, and -will have to fight them 
with our leaders only.” 

“I can whip them all myself,” said Pounder, who 
was eager for the fight, and thought little of those who 
perished, whether of the enemy or of his own people. 

Koree, too, urged them to quicker speed, lest the 
battle, the Tali and Sosee should all escape, and they 


from monkey to man. 


207 


themselves should be compelled to return without glory 
or the girl. .“If I must go south’ ’ , he said, “ I want 
the company of Sosee, and if I must die in the cold, I 
want to die with her.” 

And so his tenderness for one became cruelty to many; 
and he led the forci hastily to the seat of war, while the 
girls and the weak fell back, unable to keep up. Watch- 
the-girls fell back with them, though abundantly able to 
go on. She said she would die with her charge, or else 
bring them up to the front later on. 

And so some remained behind suffering, while others 
went forward suffering. Watch-the-girls was equally 
divided in her attentions between caring for the dying 
and getting forward the living. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



— had prepared to overwhelm, 
as we have related, by amas- 
sing against them the fugi- 


EANWHILE the Eali, to whom 


we will now return, had' been 
passing through a crisis no 
less serious than that of their 


enemy. After failing to over- 


tives from the north, they 
returned discouraged to their 


take the Ammi, whom they 


camp, there to encounter discontent among their allies, 
and finally division. They were even threatened at one 
time with extermination by the new-comers, which they 
averted by inducing the latter to pass on. The allies 
accordingly began an exodus, and were soon out of 
sight. 

But they devoured, before going, nearly all the means 
of the Eali, and carried off what they could not eat, so 
that, with the coming of the snow and cold, the Eali 
were left in destitution. This was relieved by catching 
some of the animals that had come from the north, 
and by gathering those that had perished in the snow. 
They also learned to eat, as all do in time of war or 
famine, many new kinds of food, and gathered leaves and 
sprigs, which till then had not been tasted. 


208 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


209 


The flight of the Ammi before the allied Apes, which 
has already been described, proved a serious loss to the 
Lali. These had hoped, on conquering the Ammi, to 
take possession of Cocoanut Hill, and the stores amassed 
there; and, had they succeeded, they would have had 
enough, both for themselves and their allies, for some 
time, and could have lived in comfort. 

When, accordingly, it was discovered that Sosee was 
the cause of the flight of the Ammi, and so of the mis- 
fortunes of the Lali, they resolved to put her to death. 

Several attempts were at once made at this, but singu- 
lar obstacles arose from the complications of the Apes 
with her, which secured her protection by starting fights 
among themselves. 

One, Hang-from-the-vines, who had led the combined 
forces in search of the escaping Ammi, first flew at her, 
and wpuld have torn her to pieces, but for the inter- 
vention of Ho and Oboo, who had her in charge. Ho 
seized him by the throat, while Oboo snatched her away 
to a place of safety. Hang-from-the-vines now turned in 
his rage to Ho, and these two fought together, and both 
received bites and scratches ; but, as Ho fought for love 
and Hang-from-the-vines for revenge, Ilo was success- 
ful, though the other was the greater warrior. 

Ilo marched proudly from his victory over Hang-from- 
the-vines, expecting to receive the admiration of the 
people, and especially of Sosee, who had been an in- 
different lover. 

Great was his disappointment, therefore, when Oboo 
claimed the girl. “For,” said Oboo, “I rescued her 


210 


FROM MONKFY TO MAN. 


when about to be slain by Hang-from-the-vines, captur- 
ing her from you both, as you had captured her from the 
Ammi in the first place.^ If she was yours then, she is 
mine now, and I will keep her.” 

This was too much for Ilo. Transported by rage he 
next sprang at Oboo ; when a fiercer fight ensued than 
when they both fought against Hang-from-the-vines. 
Hair and blood flew ; growls and bites came from both 
mouths ; and, as when the Wind and Snow had recently 
engaged in battle, these mighty chiefs filled the air with 
confusion and wide-resounding thunders. 

But as Ilo fought for his one love, and Oboo for one of 
many, Ilo was successful, though he had not fought so 
often, or won so many victories as Oboo. He accord- 
ingly took possession of Sosee, and, crowned with two 
triumphs, hoped to enjoy her forever. 

But Oboo, being defeated, next resolved, in his double 
loss of honor and lover, to effect her destruction. Whom 
he could not win he would kill. This was more, how- 
ever, from hatred of Ilo than anger at Sosee. He could 
not endure that another should take a woman, especially 
from him ; and so he demanded her death as a punish- 
ment to Ilo, though ostensibly for treachery to the whole. 
Joining, therefore, in a conspiracy wifh one whom he 
had recently joined in a fight, he proposed to Hang- 
from-the-vines that they kill her whom he had just 
rescued from death. 

But Hang-from-the-vines was now in a changed mood, 
being unwilling to gratify his recent enemy even by his 


own success. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


211 


“ As you would not let me slay her,” he said, ‘‘you 
shall perpetuate your victory as a defeat, and see her 
another’s. Preventing her death when she was false to 
all, you shall not get me to kill her now because she is 
false only to you.” 

Oboo, however, was resolved on her death, at least for 
the moment, and he easily enlisted others in his design. 
Oola wanted her to die because she had won from her 
the affections of Oboo (which many others, however, had 
since obtained). Other women desired her death because 
she had been their rival for several lovers, and still 
others merely because she was pretty and popular ; so 
that, between her charms and her offenses, she was in 
double peril. All, however, urged as a pretext for her 
death, not their real reason, but the excuse of her 
treachery ; so that the public welfare had to bear the 
odium of their private jealously. Only those having no 
interest in her death — the great masses — wanted it on the 
ground which all alleged. 

Her death, however, was ordered, and she was brought 
for execution before the assembled Apes. Several were 
impatient to tear her to pieces. Oola, fearing that others, 
by dispatching her, would deprive her of a coveted 
revenge, made a pass at her, but was restrained by a 
male ape who had begun to feel an attachment for her. 
A further delay was caused by a priest who insisted on 
sprinkling the scene with Swamp water, which, like the 
return of the ship from Delos, required time, during 
which, like Socrates, she could still live. 

Meanwhile she looked around for some means of escape. 
The chances for this were small, as the last moment had 



212 


sosee;’s strategy. 




FROM MONKFY To MAN. 213 

now arrived ; but her extremity made action of some 
kind necessary. 

While, accordingly, the Apes awaited the signal for 
her death, and the silence was solemnly intense, she sud- 
denly sprang to her feet, and, with great animation, 
pointed to the sky, accompanying her movement with a 
shout. 

Every eye turned from her, and fixed its gaze on the 
sky. T’hose who had been most intently looking at her, 
and expected to make the first rush upon her, were the 
first to look away, and wildest in casting about their 
heads to see what was the matter. There was an instant 
of general panic ; never did so many monkey heads move 
so rapidly, or in so many directions. Nothing was to be 
seen, which made the search more intense. Many looked 
more at the sky than they had ever done before, and 
some actually believed they saw something, and were 
overcome by fright ; for when people see nothing they 
apprehend a great mystery. 

While all eyes were thus fixed on the sky, Sosee, sum- 
moning her strength and fleetness, started to run. Swift 
as the wind, and as noiselessly, she passed away. She 
went in the direction opposite to that in which they were 
looking. 

For awhile her movements were not observed, but were 
supposed to be part of the panic caused by the dash of 
all to see something ; and it was some seconds before any 
understood that their captive had broken away, and was 
running for her life. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 



] HE recapture of Sosee was an 
an easy matter, tliough she 
had diverted from her the 
attention of all before at- 
tempting her escape ; and 
several, standing near, sprang 
after her when the}"^ recov- 
ered from their surprise. 

These would have instant- 
ly seized her but for Ilo and 
Oboo. These two lovers and 
rivals, notwithstanding their 
ill success with her, were at heart unwilling that she 
should die, hoping each that he might, by some means, 
still possess her. Instinctively, therefore, they inter- 
rupted the pursuit. 

This was less, however, because they intended her 
escape, than because they each resolved that the other 
should not have her. It was also because they wanted no 
one else to have her ; for her captor would be entitled 
to possess her, and, in the Ape customs, recapture 
counted as much as original capture, (since one allowing 
a female to escape forfeited his title to her). 

The interruption of the pursuit, however, was only 
temporary. For the whole body of apes, recovering from 

214 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


215 


their surprise, now rushed after her. Oboo and Ilo 
joined in the pursuit, but still took more care that others 
should not capture her, than that they themselves should. 
For they feared their own success as liable to defeat their 
purpose. The hope of each was that she would enter 
the Swamp, where the other pursuers, becoming scat- 
tered, could not overtake her, when he, (Oboo or Ilo), 
might pursue her alone, and make her his own. These 
lovers, therefore, while running faster than the rest, man- 
aged to stumble in the way of those nearest her, and 
especially in the way of each other; so that Sosee was 
soon gaining on them all. 

But her fleetness was of small avail, as also the rivalry 
of her pursuers. The Lali closed upon her from three 
sides. Had she kept running in a straight line toward 
the Swamp she might have escaped ; but, just as she had 
gained so much on them that she was nearly out of dan- 
ger, she changed her course, and, veering to one side, 
ran almost into the arms of her pursuers. It was now a 
matter of only a minute when she would be caught ; and 
if taken she would be instantly killed, for the more sav- 
age rabble, and not her lovers, were, by this turn, 
brought nearest her. Why she made such a dangerous 
detour was understood by none but herself. 

Her pursuers were, therefore, confident, and their con- 
cern was now less about whether she should be captured 
than about who should capture her ; for the victor would be 
entitled to possess her — or kill her ; so that, instead of 
being a race with her, it became a race^with one another. 


216 


l^ROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


A great bearded gorilla, after a spirited struggle to 
reach the front, leaped ahead of the rest, like a racer on 
the home-stretch, and, with his hair flying in the wind, 
and his jaws wide open, was on the point of seizing her. 
Panting and furious he stopped for a last spring, which 
would have both captured her and felled her to the 
ground ; when a shout arose from the I^ali, which, being 
a shout of terror, made him stop and look before leaping. 

There was abundant cause for this delay. For sud- 
denly out of the edge of the Swamp, which Sosee now 
reached, came in full view the forces of the Am mi with 
Koree at their head. 

Sosee had dimly descried these a moment before^ which 
was the cause of her change of course ; for she started to 
meet them by the most direct route, knowing that if she 
could maintain her pace but a minute longer she would 
be safe. 

The great ape who was close at her heels stopped at 
the sight of the Ammi, which gave Sosee a moment more 
to live, and in that moment she rushed into the arms of 
Koree and her friends. 


CHAPTER. XL. 


OSEE was, therefore, safe for 
the present. 

But the pursuit did not end 
with the escape of the fugi- 
tive. The momentum of the 
Apes was too great to let them 
stop, even when they wanted 
to. They accordingly rushed 
on before they had time to 
think, and fell upon the ranks 
of the Ammi, where their race was suddenly changed 
into a fight. 

Not knowing the numbers of the Ammi, and ^o not 
fearing them, the Eali commenced, before they had yet 
time to comprehend their situation, to make the best of 
it. Turning their eagerness into rage, they resolved to 
kill both Sosee afid all her race; so that scarcely had she 
reached a place oE safety when she found that she had 
carried danger into the ranks of her friends. 

The impact of the Apes on the Men was resistless. It 
astonished them as much by its shock as the Men had 
astonished the Apes by their appearance. 

The Ammi were thrown into a panic, and would have 
taken to flight had they known where to run, (for the 
217 



218 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Apes were enclosing them on all sides). All thoughts of 
Sosee were forgotten by both sides, and even by herself. 
Koree had no time to congratulate himself on her rescue, 
or the Lali to reproach themselyes for her escape. It 
was a matter of life and death to all, and again the fate 
of the human race hung in the balance. 

None fight so well as those who can do nothing else. 
The Apes, having got into battle by chance, had to fight 
to get out; while the Ammi, drawn in reluctantly, had to 
eagerly fight back. Both parties, therefore, fought 
fiercely, who would gladly have quit altogether had they 
only known how. But, having entered a battle which 
neither could abandon, both felt that their only escape 
was through victory. Both therefore fought each other 
fiercely as the only way to a mutual peace. 

Dreadful, therefore, was the clash of fists and nails 
and teeth. The air was filled with cries and the ground 
with blood. Countless bodies layin the snow, and many 
who escaped freezing, now met slaughter. Death seemed 
about to settle like a cloud on both forces, and to cover 
them all with one common shroud. 

The Tali were both more numerous and more desper- 
ate. Having gained an impetus communicated by their 
chase, they had every advantage. The Ammi, though 
more skilled and better armed, were so taken by surprise 
that they could use neither skill nor arms; so that, like 
the Apes, they fought chiefly with their fists and jaws. 

“Tet us retreat to the Swamp,” said Koree, who saw 
his forces yielding at all points. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


219 


“They won’t let us,” said Abroo, who knew that the 
Apes, being close, would follow them, and prevent a sec- 
ond escape. 

The only problem thus was how to retreat. There 
seemed no way of giving up the fight any more than of 
continuing it. Any sign of weakening would encour- 
age the enemy to rally and destroy them all. 

They continued, therefore, to fight against hope, but 
saw that even battle would soon end them, since only a 
few now remained to either escape or be killed. 

Oko proposed that they all run, and •take each his 
chance of escape. “ By regaining the Swamp,” he said, 

‘ ‘ we may be saved by hiding in the bushes. ’ ’ 

Abroo remarked that if they did so the women would 
be captured, and that men without women were not 
worth saving. 

“Besides,” said Koree, “if we hide in the Swamp, 
they will track us in the snow.” 

“There is nothing to do but fight,” said Pounder, who 
exhibited great courage during all the encounter. 
“Let us make one desperate effort, and kill as many 
Apes as we can before dying. ’ ’ 

This seemed their only hope, which was born of 
despair; and they resolved to make a strong effort 
though in weakness. 

Before exhausting that hope in their own extinguish- 
ment, Koree looked sadly upon Sosee, and uttered these 
words as a last farewell: 

“Bitter it is to die now that I have rescued you, and 
when it would be so sweet to live. But it is more glo- 


220 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


rious to die after success than if you were still in the 
hands of the lyali. Since, therefore, we cannot live 
together, let us die together. ’ ’ 

Sosee, however, heeded not his despairing words, but 
continued fighting. For scarcely had she gained the 
ranks of the Ammi when she turned on her pursuers, 
and was one of the fiercest combatants against them. 

“ Rally to the fight,” she said, ” and don’t give up to 
die while you have power to kill.” 

Her resolution was contagious, so that new spirit was 
infused into thh Ammi; and, had there been more for the 
contagion to spread among, her words would have 
proved their salvation; but it was an enthusiasm 
imparted to the helpless. 

While, therefore, they looked to see the enemy rush 
upon them, bearing with them Death, they were in a 
mind to receive this double enemy with fortitude. 

Suddenly a commotion was observed among the Dali. 
Apparent consternation .seized them, and they seemed 
about to retire from the field at the moment of their 
complete victory. 

The cause of this consternation was that reenforce- 
ments had suddenly come to the Ammi, and from a 
quarter least expected. It was not Night that had op- 
portunely settled down upon them, as it had before upon 
the Dali when it saved them from destruction. Noi was 
it a blinding Snow that beat in their faces; as if the skies 
had come down to attack them by storm. Instead of the 
Heavens it was the Barth that furnished their last 
relief. 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


221 


Watch-the-girls, who had fallen back, as we have 
related, and could not keep up in the march through the 
Swamp, because of the cold and fatigue of her troops, 
now appeared in sight with her female warriors. I^eft to 
die these heroines had fought their fate and conquered 
the elements, and they now came up to succor those who 
had forsaken them, thus offering salvation in return for 
abandonment. They were first seen by the Tali, whose 
faces, in fighting, were turned toward them; and this 
sight was the cause of their confusion. 

Out from the Swamp and into the field these women 
rushed. Fatigue had left them for a while, and the cold 
had loosed its grasp. Courage took the place of weak- 
ness, and they rushed into battle without thought of 
their condition. Those who were thought not strong 
enough to live were now found able to fight. 

As when Bluecher appeared to the Allies at Waterloo, 
and turned the fortunes of war, so Watch-the-girls came 
at the critical moment, and, with new troops, entered the 
fight and brought back hope. 

Weak as they were after their long march and priva- 
tion, these women fought with bravery, and persisted to 
the end. The Tali, who had already seized .the victory, 
now released their grasp, and, falling in great numbers, 
laid hold on Despair instead. Thrown first into con- 
fusion, and then into rout, they found it impossible to 
longer continue the contest, and so fled from the field. 

Thus the victory was won by the Ammi, and the 
human race was saved. 


CHAPTER XLI. 


I | HK Lali being defeated, the 

next question with the Ammi 
was what to do with them. 
Pounder proposed that they 
follow them up and kill them 
all. Oko seconded this, so 
far as to follow them up, but 
suggested that instead of kill- 
ing them, they simply take 
what they have, and let them 
go ; for his idea of war was 
robbery. 

“ Whether they be dead or not,” he said, “does not 
matter provided we have their booty.” 

Koree having obtained Sosee, the object for which he 
went to the war, was willing to abandon the conflict, and 
return home without anything else. 

“ There is nothing to fight for now,” he said ; “and 
nothing that we can get here will be as good as what 
we can enjoy at home.” 

Sosee seconded this proposal, having learned to love 
the Lali notwithstanding her captivity among them ; and 
she did not wish to add to their distress. 

“And let us go quickly,” she said, “or Oboo and Ilo 
will find means of attacking us again.” 

222 



FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


223 


This suggestion about his rivals confirmed Koree in his 
conviction that it was best to return home. 

After further consultation it was finally agreed to 
return at once to Cocoanut Hill. 

Here, accordingly, the Ammi parted forever from the 
Tali, and the separation proved the greatest turning point 
in the world’s affairs. The Tali became lost to history, 
like the Ten Tribes, and have been since sought as the 
“Missing Tink.’’ Wandering for generations in the 
Cold and Famine they finally became extinct, the last of a 
numerous race. Passing out of the world, as well as out 
of history,- they will be sought forever in vain. Only 
under glacial beds, amid fossil bones, may their relics 
now be traced. 

As the Ammi were making preparations for their home- 
ward march, Oko suggested that, before departing, they 
gather up all they had ; and he even went among the 
dead to see if he could find anything valuable on the 
field. 

With Cocoanut-scooper and Abroo he then took charge 
of the baggage, including their provisions. 

“ For,” said Cocoanut-scooper, “the Swamp is covered* 
with snow, so that we may not be able to forage along 
the way as we did when we came. ’ ’ 

The preparations for the return march were soon com- 
pleted, being few and simple, so that in a little while the 
Ammi were on their way back to the Cocoanut Hill 
region. 

The snow was deep, and the way difficult, so that, like 
the march of Napoleon from Moscow, this return of the 


224 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


Atnmi was a journey of suffering amid ice and snow and 
privation. 

Gladly as the Greeks, who, when led back from Persia 
by Xenophon, beheld with tears the Euxine Sea, and 
cried out with joy, “ The Sea ! ” “The Sea ! “ so the 
warriors of this earlier Anabasis, when they came to the 
Take where they had left their fleet, expressed great joy 
at the sight of the shores beyond, which recalled their 
homes. 

They would have shed tears, but having only recently 
learned to laugh, they had not yet learned to weep. 

The rafts which they had left moored to the shore were 
fast in the ice, except one which had fallen to pieces and 
was now seen strewn about as stray logs. 

But they had no need of rafts ; for the water was frozen 
and they walked across easily on the ice. 

After some small adventures they reached at last their 
homes with joy,, and the great expedition to the Tali, and 
their battles with them, were at an end. 

But they found, on reaching home, that their country 
was much changed. All was covered with snow where 
they had left a green earth and tropical foliage. The 
swarms of animals which had come from the north, like 
the Goths, had, like them, swept away every vestige of 
improvement, and devoured the fruits of the neighbor- 
hood. The trees which they had left laden with mangos, 
figs and nuts, were now bare, their branches breaking 
with snow instead of fruit. The Swamp itself seemed 
deserted, the life which had filled it being dead or 
departed. 


I^ROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


225 


Their families too, had been depleted. Of those left 
behind some had been slain by the cold or famine, while 
others had wandered away. It was a desolate home, 
therefore, to which the returning warriors came,' like 
Greece when it was regained by the soldiers after the 
Trojan War. 



return oe the ammi to cocoanut hiee. 


Pounder discovered that some one had taken possession 
of his wife in his absence, or of the woman who most 
nearly corresponded to such personage, and he imme- 
diately slew him, and took her back. The two illegiti- 
mate lovers had in his absence driven out many of the 
other Ammi who had remained at home, and taken 



226 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


possession of what was left in their huts. All this Pounder 
now took charge of, along with the woman. 

One of their number had been lost, and did not return 
for many years. He wandered about the Swamp, visit- 
ing its many shores, and meeting, like Ulysses, many 
strange kinds of apes and other beasts. Long did he 
search for his home, and many times he came near the 
edge of the Swamp, in sight of Cocoanut Hill ; but 
a perverse mistake each time drove him farther away. 
He wandered among thickets and vines, crossed streams 
and hid in marshes. He lived on roots dug from 
under the snow, and on fish caught under the ice. He 
suffered many pains and aches and bruises, still seeking 
his home. Twice he was chased by the mastodon, and four 
times he fought with catamounts. The stars seemed to 
wander from their places so that he could not even recog- 
nize the heavens ; and when he emerged at last from the 
Swamp it was to look upon an unknown country. L/ike 
the Wandering Jew he found no rest for his feet, but went 
on forever, never finding what he sought. Climbing 
banks and trees, and walking over ice and rocks, he yet 
saw nothing familiar, but always something new ; and 
when at last he came within sight of his dwelling it was 
found to be under a mountain of ice ; and as he started 
to go south, he turned, with his usual fate, to the north, 
and the traditions of the Ammi say that he is wandering 
to this day. 


CHAPTER XEII. 


the cold continued and 
strengthened, and about all 
the animals had left the Co- 
coanut Hill region, the 
Ammi began to consider 
whether they also should 
not migrate. They had re- 
sisted the change of cli- 
mate thus far by building' 
mounds, adding to their 
clothing, and habitually us- 
ing fire. (For they had given up their superstition about 
this element, to whom it had long since ceased to be a 
God, and was now not even an animal.) 

By these and similar devices they could live in the 
cold longer than other animals, and they made many 
improvements in their condition, which would have de- 
fied the weather had it been of an ordinary kind. But a 
glacial period had set in, which was to last, not for a 
winter, but for an age. The snow was falling that was 
to pile up in mountains, and to march for centuries over 
the land as glaciers, and no life could resist it; and 
hence, when they were satisfied that there was to be no 
thaw, or early return of warmth, they asked themselves 



227 


228 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 


whether they should not abandon their homes and their 
country. 

“ The cold has come to stay,” said Cocoanut-scooper, 
“ and we cannot always dig for a living. The hogs and 
tapirs which excel us in rooting, have left, and we should 
not try to live where a hog can’t.” 

“Our fingers and toes are frozen,” said Gimbo, “and 
if we don’t soon get away we will have nothing to walk 
away with.” 

“ How do we know,” asked Koree, “that we will find 
it better elsewhere? ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I notice, ’ ’ replied Abrood, ‘ ‘ that none of the birds 
or beasts that go are ever seen to come back, and they 
all go one way.” 

‘‘ Perhaps they are frozen, and can’t return through 
the snow,” remarked Koree. 

‘ ‘ The birds, which do not have to walk, do not come 
back any more than the beasts,” retorted Abroo. 

“I think,” said Gimbo, “that any plac^ where one 
can’t walk on four feet is no place to live,” and he 
raised himself up on his hind feet to warm his hands by 
blowing them — a method that they had only recently 
learned. 

At this moment a great roar was heard in the mount- 
ains, and a shaking of the earth like that which followed 
the upheaval of the Alps. A rush of snow descended 
from a high peak, crashing into the valley below, and 
burying everything beneath it. It was the first aval- 
anche seen by man, and it laid the foundation of a 
mighty glacier which was to be followed by others in its 
march across the country. 


FROM MONKFY MAN. 


229 


The Ammi were frightened at this new wonaer, and 
thought that part of the sky had fallen, and that the 
gods would come next. Gimbo died from the fright, not 
so much because of what he saw and heard, as from the 
expected descent of the gods. Thus passed away the 
last four-footed man. 

After regaining their composure they quickly decided 
to flee from the Cold, the Famine and the falling 
Heavens. 

It was, accordingly, determined to go South; and they 
immediately began preparations for the exodus. 

As soon as they were ready, they therefore left their 
ancient Paradise of Cocoanut Hill — the first Kden of the 
Human Race — driven by the cold, bleak God of Snow; 
but they sought another Kden. 

As they started South, Koree and Sosee led the way, 
not caring whither they went, so they went together. 

They directed their steps toward Egypt and Western 
Asia, whence their ancestors had come. 

They soon got beyond the snow, and out of their suf- 
ferings; for the glacial region did not extend far south of 
Cocoanut Hill. They accordingly had abundant fruits 
and mild climate for their journey, and they proceeded 
with merriment, as well as regret, stopping often and 
delaying long where the country through which they 
passed pleased them. 

They were soon beyond the Alps, which they did not, 
like Napoleon and Hannibal, have to scale; but many of 
the present peaks and ridges were not yet thrown up in the 
air, so that they easily passed through the defiles on 
level ground. 


280 


^kOM MONlCEY TO MAN. 


Nor were they stopped by the Mediterranean; for that 
sea did not then exist in its present extent. The whole 
surface of Europe, indeed, differed from its present 
contour. Spain was still connected with Africa at 
Gibraltar, and Italy at Sicily; while the British Isles 
were still joined to the continent. It was subsequent 
convulsions that first tore the continents apart, and sent 
deluges over Europe. For the upheaval of the Alps, 
already mentioned, was to be followed by others still 
greater, which would upset the basins of the old world, 
and spill their contents over nearly all Europe, destroy- 
ing its life. 

It was not difficult, therefore, for these primitive pil- 
grims to make their way to the tropics; and, like the 
Phocaeans, they went resolved never to return; and not 
for many centuries was Man again seen in Europe or the 
North. 

The region that was covered with snow remained 
a waste for ages; and it was, according to a prophecy of 
the Ammi, to continue unpeopled, until one of the 
descendents of Koree and Sosee should return, and, 
under the name of Adam, (Ammi or Man) recapture 
Cocoanut Hill, and enter again the North as a Paradise 
Regained. 

But some said that the man who should thus re-people 
the North would be the lost one mentioned in the preced- 
ing chapter, who would wander till the appointed time in 
Alligator Swamp; and they maintained also that he 
would then be found to be no other than the faithful 
Aloo, who had fallen back with Osa to die; that on 


FROM MONKEY TO MAN. 231 

account of their faithfulness these two lovers would not 
be destroyed by cold, or hunger, or fatigue, or time; but 
that, overcoming all hardships, they would wander on 
until the Sun should come again; when they would find 
rest at last amid the retreating snows, and there start a 
new race, after all others had passed out of history. 


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consummate skill of a well-trained legal mind, the kindly spirit 
of toleration of views, adverse to the thought presented, reveals 
the generous-hearted, noble-souled manhood with which the 
author is inspired.” — Chariton {Iowa) Herald. 

STRIKINGLY BOLD AND ORIGINAL. 

“The book is a strikingly bold and original argument, * * * 
is compact, systematically built up and controversially formidable. 

* * * It [the last chapter] amounts to a very drastic, indeed, 
destructive criticism of Herbert Spencer’s argument for an ‘Un- 
knowable Absolute.’ ” — Chicago Chronicle. 

A WELCOME BURST OF SUNSHINE. 

“A second and more careful reading of ‘No Beginning’ con- 
firms the favorable opinion formed from the first reading. The 
clearness, thoroughness, lucidity of style, reasonableness and pro- 
found wisdom of this invaluable volume hold the attention, con- 
vince the judgment and command the most unqualified admiration. 
I know of no man, however extensive his research or well dis- 
ciplined his reason, who would not receive benefit by a careful ex- 
amination of this work, while to the average thinker it must prove 
like a welcome burst of sunshine through a rift in obscuring clouds. 
A friend of mine who had just finished reading the book, em- 
phatically remarked to me : ‘I would rather be the author of that 
book than to be president of the United States,’ and to my mind, 
the sentiment did credit to his judgment and character.”— 
George W. Morehouse, author of *‘The Wilderness of Worlds.** 




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